proverbs31-woman.com

She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.

Have you ever felt you just can’t do it all? That you just want to curl up, go to sleep, and let the world go by? I’m sure you’ve had times like that, I think we all do. They are the times when we need to draw on our Lord for the strength to go on, and to do the things that our family and those dependent upon us, need from us.

When we’re feeling good, well, strong it’s not difficult to feel like this Proverbs 31 woman – our arms being strong, our ability to get a lot of things done in one day. Being able to keep getting it all done, being profitable with both finance and with our time and for our lamp (and our energies) not to go out at night.

I get lots of people asking me how I manage to get so much done? How do I do all that I do? I like to think it’s because I’m focussed and that God blessed me in being able to work in an area that I totally enjoy. I like to think it’s because I know my purpose and am happy in it. Most people who know me, know me as someone who is bright, cheerful, positive, happy, motivating and encouraging. But I’m not like that all the time and there are times when I’m down and very dependent on our Lord to pull me back up again, to shine His light even stronger within when I feel my own has gone out. Just last night at church our Pastor spoke of how through our own weaknesses the strength of God shows through. That He is glorified when things happen at times when we are feeling our weakest. And I’m sure that’s the secret of the Proverbs 31 woman – she has her (our) Lord within guiding her and helping her throughout her days.

These two verses show a woman who endures, who keeps going, who is strong for all that she must do and be. Do you want to have endurance, stamina and strength to carry on?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we have struggles every day that threaten to knock us down, to stop us in our tracks, to keep us from our purpose in life. We pray that you will instil in us the virtues of this Proverbs 31 Woman and plant within us the strength and endurance depicted in these verses.

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She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

I’m currently reading a book by Larry Burkett called Personal Finances for background research on a budgetting session I’ll be presenting on at my church next month. In one section he writes about striving for excellence and quotes 1 Peter 4:11, reminding the reader how important it is that we use our abilities for God’s glory. He then goes on to say that “it is important that wives and mothers excel at what they do. Usually the mother becomes the teacher of habits in the home, and her attitudes are generally reflected by her children. If she excels at what she does and keeps the home well-organized, she can be a great asset to home financial planning.” I wrote after that paragraph ‘Proverbs31 Woman’ because that is exactly what he was describing (he missed it!).

Verse 16 of Proverbs 31 shows us that this woman spends her money wisely and makes it work for her. She uses her earnings to provide for the family. Not only that but what she chooses to do with the money is something that would keep producing over time, i.e. the vineyard that would keep producing grapes for wine, that she can sell, and then plant more vines, or buy more land, or do something else with those funds. Above I mentioned Larry Burkett and how he talks of the wife and mother excelling at what she does and being an asset to the home financial planning and in Proverbs 31:16 we see the same thing.

If I’d not been doing this study I probably wouldn’t have seen this passage in Larry’s book in the same way. But I feel that as you’re learning one thing, God backs it up with other things, to reinforce the lesson. Have you found that to be so? It now means that as I present on budgetting next month at my church, I’ll be able to share what I’ve been learning from Proverbs 31 as well as from Larry Burkett’s book and other things I’ve been reading also.

Prayer: Father, help me to recognise when you are sending lessons that are from you. Help me to see the connections where you are involved. Thank you that you care enough to keep sending messages and messengers through various avenues until my ears, eyes and mind recognise they are from you.

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up whilst it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.

Wow! A lot to live up to! The Proverbs 31 Woman is not only wise with what she chooses to work with, she is the one doing the work. She selects carefully the items she brings in to her home, and the foods she feeds her family and servants. Having eager hands indicates that she loves what she is doing and pours herself into what she is doing for household fully. That she can’t wait to get into what needs to be done each day.

I looked up ‘eager’ in the Collins English Dictionary and it describes the feeling (and it is a feeling) as being ‘impatiently desirous’, or ‘anxious or avid’. Another meaning is ‘characterized by a feeling of expectancy or great desire’. So the verse above could well mean that she was anxious to get her work done (and if there’s a lot to be done in a day then I guess we all feel that way and are keen to get an early start to achieve as much as possible), or perhaps she was pleased with her plans for her family for the day and could not wait to get it completed as she had a great desire to share it with the family. There are a number of ways you could read this. But the end result is, I’m sure, that she had much to do and she was responsible for the end result of what needed to be done.

She works long hours, getting up before the rest of her family, to prepare for her day and to prepare food for them. But it also shows something else. Don’t forget the mention of the ‘servant girls’. Verse 15 shows that she didn’t work alone – she had help, in this case, her servant girls. But an important point here is that she also cared for those who helped her. Whilst it is not common today for the majority of us to have servants, it would be an expectation that family members pitch in and help with family matters and errands. The mention of the servant girls shows that she didn’t do it all alone, although she had responsibility for what needed to be done.

Bringing things from afar, being like a merchant ship, indicates that she not only made use of resources available close by, but if there was something not good enough (or not available) for her family, she sought further afield to find the right things to bring into her household. Sometimes we just ‘make do’ with something we’ve found close to home, although it’s not quite what we were looking for, or not quite the right quality, or not quite the right… something, but because of lack of time, resources, or just plain impatience, we tend to ‘make do’. This verse shows that the Proverbs 31 Woman didn’t just ‘make do’, she brought things from afar into her household.

The Proverbs 31 Woman was ultimately a wise shopper, careful with the household income, careful choosing the foods and items purchased for the household, careful with what she did with the hours she had, providing for her family in a loving and wise way.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be wise with what I choose for my family, with the hours I work in my home or out of home, and grant me the eagerness I need to carry out my duties as wife and mother in the way that You would desire for me.

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Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

Does this describe you if you are a wife? This is not to say that the wife is his slave, but that he values her abilities and skills and appreciates all that she contributes to the household and the family. That everything she does is to the good of the household, thereby bringing with her a sense of confidence, security, contentment, warmth, love, all the things that a wife and mother represent. Other versions talk about the heart of the husband having full trust in her. And that’s how it should be – a wife having trust for her husband and her husband having trust for his wife.

Have you given good reason for your husband to trust you and have full confidence in you? It’s not too late to work towards this goal and become a proverbs 31 woman.

Prayer: Father, please work with me each day and help me become a proverbs 31 woman, a wife to make my husband proud and a mother to make my children proud.