Sometimes we don’t do what we know to do because we just don’t know how. Last year I presented a framework to help Christian women to go from calling ourselves strong black women (SBW) to some other name that reflected God. I didn’t have the name at the time, but I have since recognized that the acronym is still SBW, which stands for strong biblical women. I want to revisit that framework in this post because I recognize its structure is universal. You can use it to stop doing whatever wrong you’re doing and replace that with something righteous.

First, we need vision (Proverbs 29:18): We must be able to see where God wants us to be. Whatever our issue, we have to determine what we want to be, say and do.

Second, get an understanding (Proverbs 4:5): This is where we must have the biblical basis for our vision. According to Scripture, why does God want us to look a certain way, do certain things, have certain friends, have a certain attitude, and set certain goals? The psalmist says, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way” (119:104). Therefore, having an understanding is key to walking according to God’s standards, to walking in truth.

Third, practice what we see and know: This is where we actually go from the wrong to the right. So many of us have trouble with practice because we don’t have clear steps to follow. We also lose sight (vision) and forget why we must reach the goal (understanding). In the next post I plan to list some ways to help us practice walking in our new way.

I know that we can be different. God expects and has equipped us to behave differently (Philippians 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:3). So let’s do this!

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith