In the past, I started a journal to jot down passages that spoke to me about what a woman and a wife should be in God's eyes. The journal began with Proverbs 31:10-31. It has been quite a while since I had picked up that journal to review it much less add something to it. Sometimes we get so busy doing "stuff" that we forget why we are doing it. That is where I feel like I am at right now. So I plan to begin a journey through Proverbs 31 again and thought I would share it with you. Each week I plan to break down a section of Proverbs 31 into an action plan for the week. I plan to spend that week focusing on how God wants me to reflect that particular attribute and incorporate it into my own life. Feel free to take this journey with me.
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in herThe description of a Proverbs 31 woman begins with her being a wife, which I am, but this is a wife of noble character. Noble meaning possessing outstanding qualities or morals and character meaning an attribute that makes up and distinguishes an individual. So this begins with making the comment that a wife who has outstanding qualities and morals as a part of who she is is more valuable than rubies. What are your outstanding qualities and morals? Take a moment to list them in a notebook. Are you kind to others? Do you try to find an encouraging word to say to those around you? Do you use soft words when you speak? Are your actions a positive example to your children? Do you live what you preach? It is important for us to know what noble characters we currently possess, because then we can identify those that we need to work on as we progress. I know, it is hard sometimes to put pen to paper to list our positive qualities. As women we tend more towards recognizing and dwelling on our negative features. I don't believe this is what God wants for us though. Yes, we need to be able to recognize them so that we can confess our failings and then ask God to help us to correct them. However, when we dwell on them it is as if we are saying that He can not overcome them, that our failings are greater than He is. So seriously, take a moment to list the good!
and lacks nothing of value.
Verse 11 simply states that this woman has a husband who trusts her with everything, he has FULL confidence in her. For many years this was not so in my own marriage. Often our actions are such that prevent our husband from trusting us in certain areas. My own was in the area of finances. I would turn to shopping to satisfy feelings of bitterness or loneliness. It was extravagant or to the point of bankruptcy or anything, but until I addressed this area of my life my husband was hesitant to trust me to set money aside for savings. Is there an area in your own life that your husband may be hesitant to fully trust you? You may need to sit down and talk to him candidly and ask because it may be an area that you don't recognize because it has become part of your life. If you do sit down to discuss it with him, you can NOT argue with him about it. This is about HIS perception of you, not the way you think it should be. Does that mean he will necessarily be correct? Not always. His lack of confidence in an area could be due to a misunderstanding, or because it has become a part of who he is. The point in this is to discuss it and bring it into the open in a non-confrontational way so the two of you can examine it together. Remember, a husband and a wife are one, we need to strive to not let little things of this world separate us on any level from each other.
So, our task this week is to list our noble characteristics and to determine what (if any) area our husband does not have full confidence in us.
Love,
