Rise & Shine

Proverbs 31:14 TLB She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her husband and plans the days work for her servant girls. Or in the King James: She rises also while it is yet night and gives food to household and a portion to her servants.

Getting up early? Who doesn't like to sleep in? Health studies say we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep as adults! Some studies say, let the sun wake you in the morning, it is good for you. Yet I found many years ago that getting up before the family was such a blessing to our family life and to me personally. A time of quiet solitude that does my soul good. You see, it's the waking up that is hard, once you put those feet on the floor and rev up the brain you will find that it is the very best part of your day, uninterrupted quiet without any one's needs to care for but your own. To me it is a selfish pleasure.

I am always amazed at how many times the Bible is right about things, entire books have been written on the amazing principles that are in the Bible that have been discovered as truths practiced in medicine, science, business, child-rearing, etc. These truths were written hundreds of years before modern society had discovered them. My few of my favorites you will find on this link Truths from the Bible , take a look and see, you too, will be amazed!

All that to say I think that a Virtuous Woman gets up early, she takes the time to prepare for the day, she has some time to think and organize and pray before the household arises. We look at the virtuous woman and wonder at her ability to get so many things done . . . perhaps it is because she was up early, her life was purposeful because she started it that way, early in the day. Jesus should be our guide and example in life. Numerous times we are told Jesus got up early to have time with His Father, to pray, perhaps to work out with His Father what was to be done that day, go to the Jordan river and see cousin John or drive the sellers out of the the temple. If Jesus did it, maybe I should too! Getting up early helps us to prioritize our day before it getting moving so fast we are swept along with it like a leaf in a stream.

I do a lot of reading, business type books and audios, what is interesting to me is each and everyone of them talks about the importance of starting the day early, organizing early and making a plan for the day. Maybe God placed the Virtuous Woman in the bible to help us girls see how we can do that too, our lives are so different from men, they don't seem to have the same family responsibilities that we girls do, in all my working years I never saw a man stressing on the colors of the birthday cake for the birthday boy at daycare. Maybe God knows our need to be on top of things but sees that we need a bit of insight to go in that direction - because most girls I know are exhausted! My thought is that the stress of all that we have to get done is a day causes much of that, maybe by better planning and seeking God's guidance before we get started could alleviate some of that stress - and help us to plan an earlier bedtime. One of my very favorite verses on this subject goes like this in Proverbs 9:11  "Wisdom will multiply (or lengthen)  your days and add years to your life".

In a practical sense what does this look like? Maybe start with going to bed a bit earlier, that will help with the morning sleepies, setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier than the earliest riser in the family and using that for your "me only" time will help you to get started. Shoot for a full 60 minutes and find that your whole day will change focus and you will have direction and organization. . . and breakfast for the family, lunch for the hubby and a part of God's words to you tucked away to help you make it thru your day!

Today's charm is an alarm clock

Recite this verse thru the day today, pray about it, ask God to speak to you about what you could do to make this virtue a part of your life. Imagine your family's delight at a happier you in the morning!
Proverbs 31:14 "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her husband and plans the days work for her servant girls. (on this servant girl part . . . think microwave, refrigerator, toaster, dishwasher, dryer, washer, cell phone, computer, car, premixed dinners, McDonalds, etc.)

Bringing Home the Good Stuff

Proverbs 31:14
She buys imported foods brought by ships from distant ports and the King James says it like this: She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

What kind of lady is this, out in the marketplace, bringing home good things for her family? She is not sitting at home waiting to be served, as learned from the previous verse, this girl was a busy one, finding the flax and wool and doing something useful with her hands, today she's off to the market.

In my research I found that the earliest known recipes for cooking or baking date from Mesopotamia about the time these verses were penned. It seems the women in that area recorded the recipes to pass onto one another. It was something unique from that time and culture. The items that the merchant ships would be bringing in during that time were amazing spices that we still use today in cooking. If you are a fan of Indian Cuisine you may have experienced some of those flavors. Seems Rachel Ray has nothing on the Proverbs 31 woman!

I like the way the King James puts it tho, she is LIKE the merchant's ships. Being a virtuous woman meant you were bringing something of value to the home, a uniqueness and flavor, you were a valuble asset to the partnership of marriage, you were the one to spice things up, bring the color to the household.

It is interesting to me that the sexual revolution in the 60s was to free women of the drudgery of homemaking and get her into the world, to experience what the men of the day experienced, open up opportunities to them. I wonder if the women in the 60's got complacent in the duties of virtue and stopped being the spicy one in the home - perhaps they stopped serving and were waiting to be served. Why did they feel the need to get out from under the oppression of the man of the house? I am not sure, I was a teen in the late 60's and felt burning my bra in the 70's was liberation, so what that whole bra burning generation really accomplished is still a mystery to me! The truth of the matter is that God had given freedom to us girls way back in the very beginning and Jesus set us free from the oppression of sin that keeps us held captive at Calvary. We are free indeed!

Our role as women is clearly defined by the Creator of the universe who says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made us women unique and our role is amazing, we are the ones who should import the exotic and colorful into the relationships of our households. Look at the life of the guy you married before you said "I do", what did you bring to his life? My man used to eat soup right out of the can! Salt and pepper WERE the spices at his place, the only thing that was lit up in the frig were the two lonely Budweiser bottles and the cigarettes he kept chilled! Okay, you younger gals may have the benefit of the "metro-sexual" male model but, I am just saying, there may have been some of the finer things of life lacking in his world. I hope you are the one who is continuing to bring home the spices and not buying the 60's idea that bringing home the bacon is a better concept of "freedom" than the one that God had planned for us ladies!

I have some thoughts on what it means to be a woman and the freedom that God gives us, but think about freedom and what our modern society has done with it - "we've come a long way baby" what happened in the 60s maybe was not what God intended for us gals, I think the video clip I have for us today will make you ponder, no judgement here on the people, it just has had me thinking, since a certain show has given a lot of press to it.
 

 

Today's charm is a Merchant Ship

   

Recite the verse Proverbs 31:14  "She buys imported foods brought by ships from distant ports" Today find something lacking in your relationship with our spouse and add some "spice" , ask God to give you a great idea on this and see Him be faithful! Pray for God to open your mind to His insights for you as you meditate on these verses. Recite Proverbs 31:10-14 once today.

Idleness?

Proverbs 31:13  She finds wool and flax and busily spins it . . . from the Living Bible or the King James puts it much the same way, She seeks wool and flax and works willingly with her hands.

I live in a princess world and I want to be the Queen.  I think I like the look of a life of ease, just doing what I want, when I want and only the things I enjoy. That is kinda what our culture sets before us as an ideal - a "wasting away in Margaritaville" kind of life. However if you take a quick look at the rich and famous you see that a life of ease is not a life of fulfillment. Since today's news is filled with two famous men right now I can't help but contrast them. The Michael Jackson trial shows the sad end to a man who truly "wasted away". His wealth and ablity to have and do anything he wanted lead him to a life of sloth and depression, a kind of living hell. He died of an overdose of a strong mixture drugs that would put him to sleep daily. He died alone. (ie, without family) Then we have Steve Jobs, a man who spent the last months of his "health" working and investing in a company he founded, setting it on a firm foundation - he died with his loved ones surrounding him, only two months after resigning from his position at Apple. Both relatively young, both wealthy and both dead! But what different stories they have. I wonder if at some point in time one of them stopped seeking wool and flax and working with their hands.

Here we have a Queen, telling her son, the prince, look for a girl who wants to be busy, the quality of laziness is not her lifestyle! It was quite common for the lady of the castle to be found spinning in biblical times, there is a legend that silk was discovered by an empress in China and then spun into the most amazing tapestry by her. So, even if you had a castle and maids you still found something to do to keep your hands busy!

I think there are times in my life where I resent being busy, I make comments about how stressful it is, sooo busy, sooo stressed, like somehow I need to have more "time to take it easy". I resent my busy life, yet, I see here that being busy is not something to be resented but something to rejoice in and realize that our God made us to be busy. He places his first people in a garden and says to them "you take care of it". So I look at the words here and say work willingly, be busy!

I started this week with a YouTube clip, I have another favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption, a line in that movie has always inspired me, it says we can be "busy living or busy dying". Andy looks at "living" as a life of being busy when he gets free, it is that what drives him on to his escape.
  

I want to be busy living the life God intended for me, not waiting for a time to rest easy.

Today's charm is a Spinning Wheel

Recite the verse Proverbs 31:13  "She finds wool and flax and busily spins it." Take a look at your life, are you busy doing the "right" things? Seek after what those things are so you can be doing that what pleases God. Look for an opportunity this week to do some "work" with your spouse, offer to help with something that normally you would let him do alone. Pray for God to open your mind to His insights for you as you meditate on these verses. Recite Proverbs 31:10-13 once today.

So busy!

Well, now that we have that first set of verses committed to memory we are going to start on the next set. Review the others daily till they flow out you like beautiful poetry.

Proverbs 31:13-18 is the next section were going to memorize. In the King James it says it this way
 ¹³She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
 ¹⁴She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
 ¹⁵She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
 ¹⁶She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
 ¹⁷She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
 ¹⁸She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

or the more modern Living Bible says it like this:
 ¹³ She finds wool and flax
      and busily spins it.
 ¹⁴ She is like a merchant’s ship,
      bringing her food from afar.
 ¹⁵ She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
      and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.
 ¹⁶ She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
      with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
 ¹⁷ She is energetic and strong,
      a hard worker.
 ¹⁸ She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
      her lamp burns late into the night

I think when women get to this portion of the verse they are overwhelmed with it. This is too much . . . women in our day don't have wool, what is flax and I have not seen a ship since that cruise I took 10 years ago. And servants! that is out of the questions in this economy. How about that part about getting up before dawn, not I, studies says we need 8 to 10 hours of beauty rest. Last week I heard the price of land was up to about $3000 an acre in North Dakota!! I liked visiting wine country but I remember that episode of I Love Lucy, are you kidding me??? I found a video clip of that episode. Just for funsies watch it to the end. Lucy got herself into much trouble lots of times because of something we'll be learning from these verses! This next set of verses will be fun I promise you!

Review what You Know

I am hoping that you have been reviewing the verses from Proverbs 31:10-12 over the past week.


Time to test the verses we are working on, say them out loud, there is power when we hear the words. Using more than one of the senses helps to make the verses stick. For each of the verses I have given you a charm, it is an image that you can place in your minds eye to help you remember each of the phrases. You may want to re-read the previous blog posts for additional insights.

See how it works for you,

 

You may use whatever version of the bible you like, I will use the New King James and the Living Translation for my study times.  I will be reciting the NKJV when I do the actual memory work.

Proverbs 31:10,11,12 (the Living Translation)

 ^{10 [a]}Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
      She is more precious than rubies.
 ¹¹ Her husband can trust her,
      and she will greatly enrich his life.
 ¹² She brings him good, not harm,
      all the days of her life.

Proverbs 31:10,11,12 (NKJV)
   ¹⁰ Who^[a] can find a virtuous^[b] wife?
      For her worth is far above rubies.
       ¹¹ The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
      So he will have no lack of gain.
       ¹² She does him good and not evil
      All the days of her life. 

I hope you are enjoying the insights that God is giving you and that you are becoming more aware of the kind of woman God desires for you to become,  a virtuous wife to your man. Pray the words for yourself as you go about your day and see the power of God guide you thru circumstances and situations you face.

Ooops!

Well last week when we were working on memorizing Proverbs 31:10-12, I missed something, a couple words at the end of verse ll,  In the Living Bible the verses read like this: Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. In the King James it says . . . so that he shall have no need of spoil. Sometimes when you read the two translations they sound similar, but on this verse that is not the case. I was curious about the word "spoil" what did the writer mean here. It is a word we don't use much, so its meaning does not come to mind right away. The word in Hebrew means plunder, our dictionary def of plunder says it means to rob - loot - pillage - sack - despoil - maraud - ransack. Sounds a bit violent!

Let's remember who is speaking here, it is the wife of a King (David) to her young son. She is saying "honey if you find a virtuous girl for your wife you will not have need of plunder, you will not have to conquer the world for her. Her love will be your true north, your contentment in life will be with her at your side.

Remember the words help meet? The intention God had for us girls with our men. I want to journey back to Genesis, in the garden again with Adam and Eve. It is a nice afternoon and Eve gets the hankering to go out for a walk ALONE, away from her Adam. She 's out exploring her garden and runs across a talking snake! (On a side note here, had Eve been with Adam, he could have warned her about this creature, his first job in the garden was to study and name the animals, he would have recognized this snake and known snakes were not talkers!) So we see Eve getting into a discussion with the "devil in snakes clothing". He plants the seed of doubt in Eve's mind about God, the snake tells her "there is more", God has been holding out on them. "Eat the apple and you will see it" he says. The apple tree in the garden was the lottery ticket to MORE! She hikes back to Adam, she says to Him, "Hey, big guy, I need MORE than this garden, you need to eat apple this with me and we'll have MORE" (in essence - you and this garden are not enough for me) He too doubts God and believes THEY do need MORE and eats the apple with her.  He trusted her heart for him, she would not have steered him in the wrong direction, he wanted to be enough for her, if it meant stealing that one apple, so be it! Plunder and Spoil.

As God's virtuous woman it is our primary job to develop our relationship with God. We should be the truth bearers to our husbands about God and His love for us. If we are off course it is so easy to steer our man in the wrong direction too. We are the "true north" in the home. When we trust God to be enough for us we find our contentment in Him.We won't be the one who "pushes" the one we love to move from the position of faith in God either. This whole thought makes me want to weep for the times I have stepped off course looking for MORE.

Now, when you put the next verse with this one, see how it looks!

Today's charm is an apple

Recite the verse:

Proverbs31:
¹¹The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.  ¹²She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Project for today: Seek God about the Garden you are living in today and make sure you have placed your faith in God's provision for you and your husband. Thank your husband for bringing home the bacon and let him know he's doing a great job of it too.  Pray the words of the verse and seek more insights from your heavenly Father on it.

Blessings!

What's A HELPMEET?

Proverbs 31:12(b) LBT She will not hinder him but help him all of her life - The NKJ says it like this:
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life

What is a hindrance anyway? Something that blocks our path forward. Today's memory verse is about not being a hindrance but being a helper. If you have little kids you know what that is, when you are doing dishes, in a hurry and they want to "help" or if you are working on a complicated project at the office and the boss brings the summer intern in and says, she ALL yours for the next 2 weeks - how about when you are working out and your neighbor decides to chat with you as she slowly walks the treadmill next to yours while you are focusing on keeping your heart rate at a certain level. Hindrances. . .things that slow you down, keep me from getting where I want to go! So how do we slow down the man we are with during our life time together? I am certain my man would say, "good grief, just getting her out to the car on time for church on Sunday's would be such a help!!" God wants me to be my husbands helper, It is interesting that in Genesis 1, God called Eve the helpmeet for Adam, the Hebrew for that word is the same word that God uses for Himself when He references being "our Help" in the Psalms. I think we must be intentional (to quote a popular radio preacher) about doing good things, helping things for our man, really looking for opportunities to make his life a bit sweeter.

I love this from Matthew Henry's Commentary "She makes it her constant business to do him good, and is afraid of doing any thing, even through inadvertency, that may turn to his prejudice. She shows her love to him, not by a foolish fondness, but by prudent endearments, accommodating herself to his temper, and not crossing him, giving him good words, and not bad ones, no, not when he is out of humour, studying to make him easy, to provide what is fit for him both in health and sickness, and attending him with diligence and tenderness when any thing ails him; nor would she, no, not for the world, wilfully do any thing that might be a damage to his person, family, estate, or reputation. And this is her care all the days of her life; not at first only, or now and then, when she is in a good humour, but perpetually; and she is not weary of the good offices she does him: She does him good, not only all the days of his life, but of her own too; if she survive him, still she is doing him good in her care of his children, his estate, and good name, and all the concerns he left behind him."

 I read that and thought, that is so "the 50s" But maybe the hindrance is my own mindset toward being that women, Maybe I don't want to do those things because . . . what would that answer be? Do I fear being "a doormat" walked on, unfulfilled in the process, believe I am better, I deserve more? What kind of man would not respond to being treated with that kind of loving help? Hummm?

Do I hinder the progress of my husbands growth as a follower of Christ or growth in the relationship between us?  Maybe we are each keeping some "Road Closed" signs in our relationships with our mates, areas where we are not willing to become like Jesus. Our Lord came to serve, to help us, the woman of virtue is a woman who seeks to be like her master Jesus. That is what I want for me! How about you?

Today's charm is a Street Barricade

 














Proverbs 31:10(a)  ¹⁰ Who can find a virtuous wife?
      For her worth is far above rubies.
       ¹¹ The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
      So he will have no lack of gain.
       ¹² She does him good and not evil
      All the days of her life.

Project for today: Look for one small thing to do that is something your husband would think was helpfully sweet and just for him. Pray the words of the verse and seek more insights from your heavenly Father on it.

Blessings!