No recipe tonight. We went out for dinner! 🙂 While I don’t always post exactly what we ate for dinner, I had a crazy busy day, no time for blogging recipes. However, I started this day out re-reading sermon notes from Pastor Allen’s message last weekend. One of the questions he posed was, Where are you in relation to God’s purposes? I have no idea why, but the Proverbs 31 Women popped into my head. Years ago I read this scripture for the first time and about flipped out! If we read this detailed description of the ideal wife and mother as the point-by-point standard God expects us to live up to, we’re bound to feel over-whelmed and exhausted before we even begin! But I believe the intention of this epilogue to the book of Proverbs wasn’t to give women an impossible to-do list, but to spread out before us the many opportunities we have to use our gifts, talents, and wisdom in fulfilling and productive ways.
What I have come to learn, that has actually saved my sanity, is that “she” is not one women! She’s all of us — and none of us. The commentary in my Bible says that in a time when most women were not taken very seriously apart from childbearing, the writer of this proverb dared to present a picture of a woman as a glorious, vibrant, competent, and intelligent creation of God. This imagery is as relevant today as the day he wrote it. As we put this noble women’s character in today’s world, we recognize her in ourselves and our sisters!
So who wrote it in the first place? This was an intense word given to King Lemuel by his MOTHER! (Prov 31:1). This God-breathed advice comes to the hearts of women straight from the heart of another woman. God knew and understood the need for women to influence one another; He created His daughters to be this way. Bottom line – He knew that while males can definately have a spiritual influence on us, only godly women can model how to be godly women.
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30
She will be remembered –long after she is gone — not as a woman who made great bread, beautifully knit a sweater, or successfully balanced a budget — but as a woman who sought the Lord first of all. When it is all said and done, that is the woman I want to be.
Blessings to you, my friend and sister.
She also rises while it is yet night,
She girds herself with strength,
She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
Her husband is known in the gates,
Strength and honor are her clothing;
“Many daughters have done well,
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
this was a great post. I really liked it. It really does give you ‘food for thought,’