Many are very familiar with the classic visual tool that explains priorities and time management. One is given some sort of container and a mess of rocks of various sizes to put inside. After several strategies fall flat, the answer is revealed: the largest rocks should be inserted first, then the medium-sized ones, and finally the pebbles are scattered therein, slipping down to fill up the spaces. Voila—everything fits!

The translation to real life is the understanding that if one has the proper priorities, the secondary and tertiary items will find their place. Football legend Gayle Sayers applied it to his life by saying simply, “The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.” Christianity demands this of all disciples, although where to offer the gift of self in the second category requires constant prayer and reflection.

For women in particular, it becomes obvious that arranging priorities varies widely from one person to another. When applying these thoughts to the riveting choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket, one is easily fascinated—and perhaps overwhelmed.

Considering these priorities, Mrs. Palin seems never to have wavered in her Christian faith, being raised as a Pentecostal and later moving to Evangelical circles. She has also shown a heroic commitment to family, as wife to high-school sweetheart Todd, and mother to five children.

Now what intrigues onlookers are the “pebbles” in her life. After using a beauty pageant to win a college scholarship, she amazed many with her skills at basketball, hunting, fishing, and snow-mobiling. (For those struggling to find the stamina to fold one more basket of laundry, it is difficult to imagine her stockpile of energy, but then the Gospel reminds us that talents aren’t distributed evenly.)

Interestingly, some mothers carried on a skeptical discussion on-line, wondering if Mrs. Palin’s decision would prove detrimental to her younger children. While recognizing that the governor’s credentials are solidly pro-life, they suggested that her vocation as mother required her to forego this particular honor. In fact, they opined that the authentic pro-life position would demand that she defer.

Whether political aspirations would snowball from pebble to boulder in the life of Sarah Palin is a matter between her and God. Whether the children would be negatively impacted by her election as vice-president is a matter between Sarah and Todd, to whom the children have been entrusted, and who together have the grace of state to make such a decision. Much has already been asked of her, and now she has been given the opportunity to oversee the welfare of millions more.

In Mulieris Dignitatem, we read, “A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong because of the fact that God ‘entrusts the human being to her’ … herself. This awareness and this fundamental vocation speak to women of the dignity which they receive from God himself, and this makes them ‘strong’ and strengthens their vocation.” John Paul II then reminds us that, occasionally, “whole nations” should be grateful for the work of specific women (MD, 30).

Mrs. Palin’s vocation is unique and personal, and her journey will require discernment and clever balance. If her acceptance speech was any indication, she is moving forward wisely—feeling her way with a “servant’s heart.” How Marian, how motherly, and how privileged are we to watch events unfold in the coming months. Her witness can do so much to remind all women what is possible when pebbles remain pebbles and the largest stone of all remains the Rock of Ages.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman (Servant Books).