An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
Proverbs 31:10
The words of Proverbs 31 were written to a king by his mother. They are an attempt to pass on wisdom, to give instruction, to influence a son's life even after he's gone on to be an independent and powerful king. Verses 10-31 specifically address this king's choosing a wife and give the wise perspective of a mother who knows the inner workings of the world of women. Although we are far removed from the original audience of this acrostic poem (in Hebrew, the lines begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order), there is a mine full of precious stones found in its content. Just like precious stones remain precious over time, so the wisdom found in these verses is still applicable today.
As we begin week 2.5(ish) of the new year, I invite you to adopt yet another resolution: to work toward becoming a Proverbs 31 woman. I don't expect us to reach Proverbs 31 perfection, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve as much as we can. After all, these verses describe a strong, beautiful, godly woman. The very first verse says that a woman who fits this description is more valuable and rare than jewels. Who doesn't want to become that?
Our world bombards us with challenges that keep us from striving to become godly women. It feeds us messages that say inner beauty is not as important as physical beauty. It fills our schedules and makes us far too busy to fulfill our responsibilities. It trains us up to be adamant feminists, wary of men and obsessively defensive of our womanhood. Lets put those things aside and let Scripture teach us to be the kind of women God wants us to be. If we work hard at this goal we'll at the very least find ourselves a bit closer to being rare, precious, excellent ladies.
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