A Narrative: Living on Mystery Island

The List:
(1) Cultivate a gentle, quiet spirit
(2) Seek out mentoring relationships from older women in the church
(3) Work on your culinary skills
(4) Serve others
(5) Don't flirt with boys
(6) Dress modestly
(7) Cultivate patience
(8) Pursue Christ
(9) Don't make an idol out of marriage

The plot: Men on Man Island. Women are on Mystery Island

The narrative: So, women are on their island, furiously trying to cross things off of their checklist. They don't dare venture onto Man Island because they don't want to be thought of as whore-ish and they want to wear white on their wedding day. Meanwhile Man Island is filled with men who keep on gazing toward Mystery Island. They see the female folk and are intrigued, but they don't want to be rejected. They want to know more about the good smelling food and the well decorated huts. "Where, oh where does that come from?? How do they do such things? Why?" wonders one group of men. "I wonder if they know how to read. I'd like get to bounce some philosophy off of another group of people." wonders another group. "I shall impress them with my muscles. They have some pretty big rocks over there." another group of men pontificates.
The women, in their frenzies, just don't understand or comprehend how vast and different the men folk are. They think all they need to do to snag one is to cross off their checklist. Once the checklist is complete, they can turn it into their Leader in order to prove to Him what a good wife they can be.
There is a large group of women that seem to vanish way before their checklist is finished. They only seem to be able to dress modestly and be patient. Another group of women checked off their whole list, but in pencil. Some check marks don't look very convincing. They leave the island anyhow. And yet another group of women leave, their check marks placed neatly and in black ink.
There are still a few women left on the island. They have completed the checklist, but they can't leave for some reason. Some are still struggling to complete it and can sense that the clock is ticking. They all gaze toward Man Island and they all kind of look at each other "Hm. The one I was hoping for doesn't seem to be there anymore. The ones that are left . . . eh, well, it could be worse I suppose. Are there some others hiding in the bushes?" They take their concerns to the Leader. They ask Him "So, uh, what is going on? It seems like you are holding out on us. The good ones seem to not be there anymore." The ones that have dutifully completed their checklist point to it in order to remind Him. The ones that are struggling remind Him of the ones that got to leave years ago with only a couple of things checked off.
He takes the group of women over to His workstation. He lets them see what happened to the checklists: they are all torn up and sprinkled over the ground like confetti. The group of women yell at their Leader, "What the hell!? Why did you give this to us in the first place?!".
He asks them, "When did I give it to you?"
They all kind of stare at each other. They had the lists for quite some time. Everyone had a list. It was part of daily life. Surely something that essential would come from Him, but none could remember exactly who gave it to them. It was just always there and everyone talked about it.
"So" they ask "what do you want us to do? How can we get off this island? How are we supposed to know what to do with those creatures over on Man Island?"
The Leader smiles and hugs each one. He strokes each woman's hair, kisses her on the cheek, and reminds each one of how He rescued them from the shipwreck they had suffered from long ago. He recalls the story of bringing them to the Island and nourishing them all back to health.
They all remember being in fear of their lives in the abyss of the ocean with no land in sight. They breathed a collective, restful sigh. They forget about their questions. They are at peace for the first time in a long time.
They continue about their duties. They still wonder from time to time about what's going on Man Island. They did everything they did before, but they have a different reason now. What they were doing before wasn't bad, their Leader would have corrected them if it was. Now, they are at peace. They wonder from time to time what life off of the island would be like, but they know they are where they need to be.