Proverbs 31 Challenge: Doing Good

She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

Proverbs 31:12

A lot of things changed when my husband and I got engaged. For one, my stance on cooking changed from "I'll never go there" to "Can't wait to learn!" I knew that I had to give up a lot of the selfish tendencies I had so that I could be a good wife who does good things for her husband. Learning to do this is a never-ending process that for some reason never seems to get any easier.

The lesson doesn't just apply to married ladies, though. It's extended to all Christians when we're told to treat others as we'd like to be treated, go the extra mile, and turn the other cheek. Doing good for others is a part of every Christian's walk.

I think the hardest part of this challenge is the last part: "all the days of her life." Its not too difficult to do good things for someone for a short while, just like its easy to keep resolutions for the first week of January but hard to keep them the whole year. The godly woman is good to her husband not just during their courtship, engagement, and honeymoon, but until the very end of her life, even after he's died if she happens to outlive him. She is good to him when the bills are piled up, the money is short, the children are crying, and the laundry mountains are threatening to avalanche.

The real challenge is to be a reflection of God's goodness to people no matter what is going on: if you're so tired you're falling asleep at your work desk, if family issues have you completely stressed out, if someone has pushed your last button by saying you really shouldn't have that piece of chocolate (true story!), if everything seems like its about to fall apart. Could harming someone really make any of those things any better? Lets not aim to be good to people sometimes, but all the time, and maybe we'll at least be able to do so most of the time.