Proverbs 31 "A Virtuous Wife"

I have been thinking about this passage for days. I knew it was coming; because it is one of my favorites. I'm a little excited yet a little nervous at the same time to blog about it. To be honest as I looking at my disaster of a living room, I am thinking I should be the last to writing about being a good wife. Thank God, that He speaks to us where we are, even in our tornado stricken living room. Honestly, I think my dryer vomited everything onto my couch. hehehehe

I want to take a look at verses 10 - 31. We start out the passage with a question, "A wife of noble character who can find?" If you are lucky to find such a woman, she is a pretty valuable person. We then go into the qualities of being that virtuous wife:

1. Her husband trusts her in EVERYTHING! vs.11 & 12


2. She is an eager worker vs. 13


3. She does the shopping well vs. 14


4. She gets up early and makes breakfast (for her family and servants) vs. 15


5. She invests her finances, then puts it to work and makes sure it is profitable. vs. 16 & 18


6. She is strong and works hard vs. 17


7. She works into the night. vs. 18


8. She makes her own clothes and linens vs. 19


9. She helps the poor vs. 20


10. She makes sure her family is properly dressed vs. 21


11. Her home is made and she is dressed well. vs. 22


12. Her husband respects her. vs. 23


13. She has a side job to make money. vs. 24


14. She has dignity and sense of humor. vs. 25


15. She is a mentor and guards her tongue. vs. 26


16. She is not lazy. vs. 27
    

Whoa, that my friends is an amazing list, a little frightening I might add. Before we give excuses of why we can not do this list, let's examine the motivation of our hearts. Once again to be honest, I had a few excuses of my own....

• Hey, she has servant; if I had servants I would be able to do all that too!


• If her dryer ate all her missing socks, she wouldn't be so great.


• Back then they had to do all that stuff, we have things now to make life easier so I can relax more.


• I bet she had a servant do all the cooking...I hate cooking.


• Do I really have to do ALLLLLLLL that stuff anyway?

Of course I can not do all this stuff! Not in my own strength, that is why I have to start my day with asking God to give me strength and wisdom for the day. We are closing up Proverbs and it has summed up nicely everything we are to be as women of God. Thank goodness we can go to God for help. Look friends, God is calling us to do more, to be more, and to be an example. He has given us a list that we can carefully examine and see what we need to work on. We do "better" because we now know "better". It is cool that God doesn't leave us wondering, "How can I be a good wife?" I know that there are some things in that list that I need to work on.

With God's help, what will be the results of doing all that crazy stuff anyway? Verse 28 gives us the answer to that question.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.

Ooooohhh, I just love that. I want my children and my husband to say those things about me. I want to be "that mom". With God's help I know I can, I know we all can. And as we allow God to help us, we will be an example to our daughters on how to be a virtuous wife and teach our sons the qualities to look for in a good wife. I bet we will be pleasantly surprised by our husband attitude towards us as well.

You know how there is always a "but"?(I know it sounds funny but it's the only way to say it) Well, here it comes. When one says "but"in a sentence, it negates everything before it. Yay, some of you might be thinking, hold on though.... I think this coming verse is the most important one.

29 Many women do noble things (that list is pretty noble), BUT you surpass them all.

(me interjecting, WHY?)

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praise.

I am going to take some liberty and pair this verse with one of my favorites...

I Peter 3:3-4 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of fine jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

When God does not have first place in our lives than when we do all that stuff...it means nothing. Yikes, I don't want that to happen. God wants all of us, hold nothing back from Him. When we fear Him and let Him mold that inner self, then we will be of great worth more than money can buy (even more than rubies vs. 10; but men if you are still reading giving rubies is a great idea to remind us that we are more valuable than them. LOL).

Such good stuff today, I am already...

GETTING JOY!

Check out my friend's perspective on Chapter 31!

Oh, don't worry friends, I have to go back and do chapter's 1&2; so I am not done with Proverbs just yet.