Being a Proverbs 31 Wife Part 1

Proverbs 31 is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. In this chapter of Proverbs God shares His wisdom and guidance about the kind of wife I am to be and the duties that I am to have. So I thought I would break this up and write a series of posts about being a Proverbs 31 wife.

Proverbs 31
vs 10:Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
vs 11:The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

To our husbands a good and virtuous woman is a priceless treasure. This seems to be something that has been lost in recent generations. It used to be that men/husbands readily showed that the one thing they treasured most was their wife. Men of old would give their life in protection of their wife. No man was more fierce than when his wife was insulted or violated or harmed. She was priceless. This reminds me of an episode of Little House on the Prairie. In this episode another man is making rude insinuations to Caroline and when she attempts to walk away from him, he grabs her arm. She does get away and is very upset over the whole incident. When Charles finds out about this he is furious because his wife was treated this way. Charles confronts the man and this confrontation escalates into a fist fight. Charles unfortunately gets beat up pretty badly. The whole point of this is that Charles so valued his wife that his only concern was to defend her. He gave absolutely no regard to his own well being. And this brings us to the next verse which explains why a man treasures his wife so. It is because she has his heart. Her most valuable possession is the heart of her husband and because a virtuous woman holds her husbands heart and values her husbands heart then no spoil (other woman) can touch him. In recent generations it seems as if infidelity has become a pandemic that has spread like wildfire across our country. Even television shows are full of it with so and so cheating on so and so and then vice versa. Why is this? Because so many women have stopped being virtuous. You see mainstream society has filled women's heads so much with the bulldooey that they need to be like men that they no longer care for the virtues of womanhood. They seek careers and independance from those things which women always in the past held dear, like family children and their husband. At one time in history a woman guarded her reputation, nowadays women do not care about reputation. If fact, the world seems to care very little about reputations of women. It has become so mainstream for women to behave like men...drinking in bars, fighting with other women, sleeping around. So as a result women are no longer virtuous and a non virtuous woman cannot hold her husband's heart. Therefore he is tempted to be spoiled. So what we ladies need to think about is our virtuousness now. Do we consider how our dress might affect our virtue? Do we consider how our friendships might affect our virtue? Do we consider how our attitude might affect our virtue? Do we consider how our language and way that we conduct ourselves might affect our virtue? If we do not consider our virtue, then our husband's won't consider it either.

vs. 12: She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

One thing I have discovered is that our husbands need constant reassurance and ego boosters, especially in their younger years. If we ladies are complaining about them and to them then we are doing evil to our husbands. We are tearing them down instead of lifting them up. Our husbands never really stop "courting" us or trying to impress us with their prowess. It is just that we wives stop seeing this. Instead we focus on their faults or their shortcomings and in doing so we stop doing him good and instead are doing him evil. Not only that but we do ourselves evil as well because this man will eventually start seeking some other means to boost his ego. Now this does not always mean another woman, but it could mean that work becomes more important than home. Our husbands need to know that what their efforts to impress us ladies do not go unnoticed, they need that ego boost. So we should do them good and be supportive and vocalize our pride in their efforts.

vs. 13: She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

As men were commisioned to til the soil, women were commissioned to make use of that effort. You see this is an example of the further strengthening of the marriage bond, the covenant with God. We ladies work as hard as our husbands and I think modern day women have forgotten this. So many stay at home wives, do nothing. They go to lunch and go shopping and flit here and there during the day. They hire someone to clean their home and put the children in daycare. There is no intertwining with the work of their husband. The bond is broken. Wives in olden days cooked and cleaned, they sewed and tended the children. If their husband was a businessman then his wife saw to it that business associates were entertained in their home. The two worked together. This always reminds me of an old saying that I have heard all my life "Idle hands make for the devil's playground". Too many women nowadays have idle hands and so they seek their happiness outside of their marriage. So many women are unhappy with their marriage and turn to shopping and other forms of satisfaction and it is all due to the fact that there hands are idle.

vs.14: She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

Well, this reminds me of another old saying, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". This is so true. Men like food and they especially like food that is prepared by the woman that they have entrusted their heart to. So ladies, when we stop bringing our food to our men then we are failing in our duty as wives. In today's world of fast food and restaurants it is all too common to find wives who do not ever cook. It is fine to go out once in a while and take a break from the kitchen, but it is our food at home that makes our husbands happiest. It is our food lovingly prepared with our hands that brings them fulfillment. It is their satisfaction that gives us as women pride in what we do and satisfaction with ourselves.

So tomorrow I will continue with more of Proverbs 31. God bless and take care.