Gold Ring in a Pig’s Snout
(Mother-Daughter Event, inner beauty, Proverbs 11:22)
by Deb Brammer
[Uses one woman puppet and a real woman (a human arm puppet works best or Woman will have to help Pansy take off some items); Props: hanky, fur collar, huge plastic jewels for earrings, a necklace with big, fake pearls, a dated scarf, or use your own outlandish fashion items and adapt the script]
PANSY: Help! Help!
WOMAN: Pansy, what’s wrong?
PANSY: I can’t decide what to wear to the Mother-Daughter Night.
WOMAN: Is that so hard?
PANSY: It is. It’s especially important to look good at the Mother-Daughter Night, because someone is going to be there that is very particular about what I wear.
WOMAN: Pansy, I think you’re being too sensitive. I know most of the ladies who will be coming and they don’t judge people by their clothes. They’ll enjoy you just the way you are.
PANSY: It’s not the other ladies I’m worried about.
WOMAN: Really? Who is it?
PANSY: My daughter. Since it’s a Mother-Daughter night, my daughter will be there, too. She doesn’t like the way I dress.
WOMAN: How do you know that?
PANSY: She never borrows any of my clothes. Well, once she did. She was in a play at school. She played the part of the school nerd. Well, you guessed it. Boo Hoo. (Blows nose.)
WOMAN: Oh.
PANSY: So I want to make a good impression tonight so my daughter won’t be embarrassed. Besides, if she sees that all the other ladies like what I’m wearing, maybe she’ll think her mom isn’t so bad after all. So what do you think? How do I look?
WOMAN: Well, you look like you really dressed up.
PANSY: Do you like the fur collar? I thought it would really impress the ladies.
WOMAN: It might–if we don’t have any ecologists in the crowd.
PANSY: Why? What’s wrong with a fur collar?
WOMAN: Well, it’s really not politically correct to wear real furs, these days. Some people object to killing animals just for looks.
PANSY: Oh, dear. Well, maybe I won’t wear the collar. They won’t object to my earrings, will they?
WOMAN: Your earrings?
PANSY: Because they’re real diamonds.
WOMAN: Well, no one has to kill an animal to get real diamonds, so I think you’re safe. You’re sure they’re real?
PANSY: Positively. The lady who sold them to me said they were.
WOMAN: Maybe you need to ask for proof.
PANSY: (offended) Proof? You shouldn’t need proof. You ought to be able to trust well-known stores. That’s the last time I buy fine jewelry at the $1 shop! Well, if you don’t like the collar, what do you think about the scarf. (Takes collar off to reveal scarf.) Our pastor’s wife loaned it to me. She said it always made her feel beautiful.
WOMAN: Well, maybe. But I haven’t seen anyone wearing that kind of scarf for about 15 years. Maybe you ought to ask her when the last time was that that scarf made her feel beautiful.
PANSY: I guess. Well, if the fur collar and the scarf won’t work, how about a real pearl necklace. (Takes scarf off to reveal necklace.)
WOMAN: Those are really big pearls, Mrs. Smiley. Let me guess. You got your genuine pearl necklace the same place you got your genuine diamond earrings?
PANSY: Yes. You don’t think? Really! It’s getting so you can’t trust anyone these days.
WOMAN: Pansy, somehow, looking at you I can’t help thinking of Proverbs 11:22. It says, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman who is without discretion.”
PANSY: What does that mean?
WOMAN: Well, a nose ring was a common ornament for Jewish women.
PANSY: Hmmm. Maybe I should try…
WOMAN: I wouldn’t. In Bible times they considered pigs to be unclean, filthy animals.
PANSY: So it would be stupid to put a beautiful gold ring in a pig’s snout.
WOMAN: Right. And a woman who lacks discretion is someone who doesn’t know the right way to talk or act and does things that are inappropriate. If a beautiful woman doesn’t act right, beauty is wasted on her.
PANSY: So what does that mean to me? I’m not exactly a beautiful woman.
WOMAN: I think, Pansy, that you’re much too worried about how you look. If you are kind and loving and nice to talk to, people will think you are beautiful anyway.
PANSY: They will?
WOMAN: Yes. And it’s really too late to be worrying about trying to dress to impress the ladies anyway.
PANSY: It is?
WOMAN: Yes, because the other ladies are already here.
(Pansy looks out at audience and gasps).
WOMAN: Never mind. We have nice ladies out here and I think they’ll be glad to talk to you just the way you are.
PANSY: Well, maybe I’ll go take my jewels off. I don’t want to remind anyone else of a “gold ring in a pig’s snout.”
WOMAN: OK. But come right back. We’ll be waiting to talk to you.
PANSY: See ya.
(Pansy exits.)
[You can follow this script with a discussion of “God’s Beauty Make-over,” what God can do to make you beautiful. Look at your inner self with the mirror or comparison to others OR the mirror of God’s Word (Rom. 3:23, 1 Sam. 16:7) God wants to do a beauty make-over on our inner selves (Isa. 61:10). God wants to make our everyday lives beautiful. (Gal. 5:22)]