A WOMAN'S INFLUENCE

Ladies please I am not trying to pick on you one way

or the other.  In fact growing up without sisters I thought

that girls and women were angels.  I think that it was my

wife who told me that not all females are angels.

But one morning while reading my Bible I noticed what an

influence one woman had on her husband.  Then my mind 

began to wonder over the influence of a number of the women

mentioned in the Bible and their influence, either good or bad.

Consider:

Eve.  She influenced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and the

entire world has suffered for it since.

Sarah.  She influenced Abraham to have relations with a 

woman he should not have.  The result is hard feelings 

and war between two races of people ever since.

Ester.  Here is a good one.  She simply melted king

Ahasuerus's heart.  That saved the Jewish people.

Solomon's wives.  They influenced him to worship

foreign gods to his hurt.

Jezebel.  She influenced Ahab to live an evil life.

King Herod's step daughter influenced him to have

John the Baptist's head cut off.

Here is a more modern day woman.

Susan Wesley.

If memory servers me right, she had 14 children.

She spent time with every one of those children

every day.  In the process she raised John and Charles

Wesley who greatly influence the world you and I 

live in.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it bothers

me in our modern world that women are trying to

be every thing but a woman.  In their God given

position women have one of the most influential

positions on the face of the earth.  Why lower it?

Most of my life I have heard the expression,

"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Having never read the poem before it is included

below.

Blessings on the hand of women!
    Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
    Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
    Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
    Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain,
    Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
    From them souls unresting grow —
Grow on for the good or evil,
    Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
    Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
    Here upon our natal sod;
Keep – oh, keep the young heart open
    Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
    Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
    Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
    Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
    With the worship in the sky —
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
    Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
    Is the hand that rules the world.

by William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)