From the beginning of recorded time, women have struggled with tough choices. They have wrestled with the restrictions fencing them in. They have sometimes bowed to, and sometimes rebelled against, the powerful who ruled them. They have lived out their lives balancing their understanding of God’s will for them against the demands others made upon them. Some lived lives of quiet desperation. Others found strength and comfort in their relationship to the living God.

Some made wise decisions. Others made destructive choices. Eve reached for a piece of fruit— just a piece of fruit—and brought upon herself and upon all her sisters since that time the devastating consequences of the Fall. Rahab chose to hide the Israelite spies and became an ancestress of the Messiah.

Choices. Life is full of them. We have to make them. So how do we make them well? We can turn to the Word of God, the Bible, for help in wise decisionmaking. There we can learn by precept and by example.

In the pages that follow, we will watch two biblical women wrestle with problems that are sometimes different from our own, and sometimes surprisingly similar to those we face. As we watch real women fail or triumph, we can find principles that will make clearer the answers we seek.

To make wise choices we must know God’s Word and apply it well. As we do that, we can become people of worth, wise people whom God can use.