A Committed Perfectionist Finds Her Flaw : Religion: Former Cabinet member Elizabeth Dole felt a void in her high-profile life until she took a journey of spiritual renewal.
Elizabeth Dole was cited in a 1988 Gallup poll as one of the 10 most admired women in the world. But the lady who combined Harvard Law School brains, Southern grace and a perfectionist passion for public service says her life was once missing something essential--spirituality.
“I was blessed with a beautiful marriage and a challenging career,” Dole regularly tells breakfast prayer groups across the country. “Gradually, over many years, I realized what was missing. My life was threatened with spiritual starvation.” Dole said she realized her public service commitment had crowded out the spiritual lessons she learned in Salisbury, N.C., at her grandmother’s knee.
Dole began her journey to spiritual renewal by meeting with a group of Senate wives for weekly Bible study, discussion and prayer. “I had built up my little self-sufficient world,” Dole recalled in an interview at the headquarters of the American Red Cross, where she has served as president since 1991.
“I had God neatly compartmentalized, crammed into a crowded file drawer of my life, somewhere between Gardening and Government.”
In Monday-night Bible studies, Dole said, she shared feelings with the group that she never would have expressed to her White House colleagues during her years as transportation secretary in the Reagan Administration and secretary of labor under George Bush.
In this safe confine, Dole came face-to-face with her perfectionist tendencies and compulsion to constantly please.
Dole said she learned that real inner strength comes from a dependent relationship with Jesus Christ, not from independence and self-reliance. Although she encourages young people to strive for excellence, which she believes is a Christian virtue, she cautioned: “I think there is a point of diminishing returns.”
Even the greatest public service initiatives cannot meet one’s deepest needs, she feels.
“Christianity is more than faith, more than believing, more than trying to have a mission field,” said Dole, the wife of Robert Dole, the powerful Senate minority leader. “The essence of it is having that personal relationship with the Lord.”
Dole spends at least 30 minutes a day in Bible study and prayer, a time of spiritual renewal that gives her the energy and passion to sustain a schedule she says is sometimes a blur.
Sunday has become sacrosanct in the Dole household as a time to recharge the batteries--physical, emotional and spiritual. It’s a time for church, friends and no appointments, except for an occasional appearance on a Sunday-morning news show.
“D.C.’s power couple” is how some describe the Doles. But their private life together belies the powerbroker image.
“We’re not on the social circuit,” Dole said. “We enjoy simple things like the treadmill, watching old movies and fixing dinner.”
The Doles have worked together on projects to help inner-city children, the homeless and senior citizens, and with the Dole Foundation, which was established by the senator to aid disabled people.