Bride Price by Susan L.

  Affirmation #35, I am bought with a price.
  After some quick investigating, I discovered that a dowry and bride price are two different things.
  A dowry is the wealth, belongings, or such gifts a parent gives their daughter husband as part of a marriage contract. In the days of "hope chests", a young girl would begin to set aside items like hand embroidered linens for the day she had a household of her own. That chest would be part of her dowry.
  A bride price is what the groom pays the family for the daughter's hand in marriage.
  I heard a story again a while ago that has been making the rounds for a number of years. I'm going to try and capture the gist of it.
  In India, there was a plain woman of a poor family. She was constantly told how ugly she was by everyone in the village. She was treated poorly because her parents thought she would never become a bride. They were burdened with the idea of having to take care of her for the rest of their lives.
  One day, a young, wealthy landowner rode through town and saw the woman in the streets. He fell in love with her simple looks and humble manners. Later that week, a herd of ten cows was delivered to her parents. It was a bride price of extravagant wealth! No one had ever paid that much for a bride in all of India.
  She left home to be with her husband.
  A year later she returned to her village. People bowed down before the caravan, not recognizing the woman they had treated so harshly because her head was held high. She glowed with radiant beauty simply because one person knew she had hidden deep inside a ten cow woman.
  It's a version of the Cinderella story. This favorite plot line appears again and again in stories and movies around the world. It seems we can't get enough of it.
  My Lord paid a greater price than the one paid in all of India. He paid for my hand with His precious blood.
  "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." 1 Cor 6:20