Welcome back to week 3 of our Proverbs 31 study. I hope y’all are enjoying it as much as I am! This week we’re going to look at Proverbs 31: 13-15.

She selects wool and flax 

and works with eager hands. 

She is like the merchant ships, 

bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still dark; 

she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 

Proverbs 31:13-15

This week we see a picture of a woman who is clearly not afraid to work and is certainly not lazy. Lets dive in a little deeper and see how we can relate these

Wool has been used for clothing since early times. I was thrown off by the mention of flax, I automatically thought of flax seed. But I’ve learned that flax was largely cultivated for the manufacture of linen. It would be dried, peeled, hackled and spun first and then would be ready to be made into linen. So, not only does she make their clothes, she actually makes the material as well.

There may be some of you who make clothes for your family, but this chickie right here isn’t one of them. Sewing and I are not friends. But there are lots of other things I can do with eager hands to provide for my family. I enjoy loom knitting and can whip up a mean scarf in a few days. There are so many different things we can do with our hands…sewing, knitting or crocheting to name a few.

Also, in our modern times we are blessed with inexpensive clothes. I might not be able to sew but I can shop a mean clearance rack, normally with coupons in tow. Even further than that, doing the laundry and ensuring our family has clean clothes to wear. I know laundry can seem like a never-ending task…washing it, drying it, folding it and putting it away. Believe me, do I ever know that. I have a teenage boy who changes his clothes a minimum of 3 times a day. Yeah, unreal. Laundry is a task we should approach with eager hands as well. Y’all know whats written in the Bible there isn’t any arguing with, right? So when God says to do our work joyfully and eagerly, and we actually do it without grumbling, that is what is honoring to God. Think it’s impossible to do your laundry with joy? Nothing is impossible with God. When you sit down to fold it, pray and ask God to help you to have joy in your heart about it.

This woman is willing to go to great lengths to get good food for her family. I even read y’all that she might have had to travel the whole way to Egypt just to get corn for her family. Thank goodness for grocery stores, can I get an Amen? But she was willing to go as far as she needed to go to get food for her family.

I think it’s important that as women, we learn how to cook good meals for our family. With the access to the internet and Pinterest, there really isn’t any reason we wives shouldn’t be good cooks. Casseroles are so easy and yummy. We really shouldn’t be turning to easy meals every night like hamburger helper or fries and fish sticks. But actually take the time to prepare a good, healthy, home-cooked meal for them to come home to. That is a way we can show love and care to them. Be willing to go the distance to get the meal done, cooking for a few hours if need be. I like to cook homemade bread, rolls or cinnamon rolls once a week for my family as a treat. Yes, it takes time…but seeing how much they enjoy it makes it totally worth it.

Also, take the time to clip coupons and save your family as much money as you can. There are so so so many coupon websites out there that you just print the coupons right off of {HERE, HERE andHERE}. Another way we need to be willing to work hard without grumbling…our grocery shopping. We need to approach it with the same eager heart that we do other chores.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

Colossians 3:23

Verse 15 really caught my eye. I found some really interesting info about it. A lamp is always kept burning at night in Eastern houses. Since the houses are very small, the careful housewife has to rise at midnight to replenish the oil. While she is up, she often then begins her household work by grinding the corn or preparing something for next day’s meals. So this also directly ties to verse 18, She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.

So it’s the middle of the night, the house is quiet, what would this be a perfect opportunity for her to do? What did Christ do early in the morning {Mark 1:35}? Pray! What a great lesson for us as well. You know how much easier it is to concentrate in a quiet household. That would be the perfect time to spend time with Him through prayer, being in His Word, giving thanks and praise. I actually write 90% of my blog posts early in the morning while everyone is still in bed.

So I encourage you this week to do your laundry, grocery shopping and cooking to the glory of God. Maybe try getting up a little early one day to spend some time in prayer. Aahhh, maybe go for a walk and pray at the same time. I call those “walk and talks”. What better place to talk to God than in the beauty He created!! Create a warm and loving atmosphere for your family to come home to with eager hands and a joyful heart.

I sure hope you’re enjoying this journey through Proverbs 31 as much as I am. I’m super excited to continue this week with one of my fav topics, marriage. Let’s take a look at the next two verses.

So the absolute first attribute we see of this woman is that her husband has full trust in her. I think the King James Version is beautiful, it says The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. So not only does he trust her with his money, his children and basically his life…he also trusts her with his heart. Oh trust, can’t we all agree that is such a crucial part of marriage! Being trustworthy is such a blessing to your husband. How do we become more trustworthy? By mirroring God.

I was intrigued by the KJV version and what no need of spoil meant, so I dug a little deeper. Basically, he knows that his trust is not misplaced. He knows his wife would not do him wrong, ever. Which ties directly into the next verse.

She brings him good, not harm, ALL the days of her life. It doesn’t say she only is good to him when she feels he deserves it. All the days of her life y’all. Every single one! In our world, 50% of all marriages end in divorce. But for the Proverbs 31 woman, she is in it for the long haul. For better, for worse…for richer, for poorer…in sickness and in health…all the days of her life. She remains faithfully at his side. And he has confidence that she will always be there.

This beautiful lady strives oh-so-hard to make her home a haven of joy and happiness for her husband to return home to at the end of the day. There is a quote by Martin Luther that I love…let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. That quote is a perfect example of a Proverbs 31 wife.

She doesn’t love her husband with conditions and she doesn’t hold grudges. How many of us can say that? Surely not this strong-headed girl. Forgiving love is a love that is securely rooted in God’s love for us. God wants our love to be sweet, soft-hearted and lovely. He wants it overflowing with forgiveness. By offering forgiveness, we are offering the grace that God has given us. The Proverbs 31 wife doesn’t cling to prior offenses, tucking them in her pocket to use later. She wipes the slate clean as soon as the offense happens. She knows that will not only set her husband free, but her as well.

Nearly two years ago, I did a Bible Study here on the blog of the Proverbs 31 woman. I really enjoyed going through the study with y’all and learning all that I could. I thought this would be a great time to revisit the study and hopefully learn something new! Each Sunday we’ll have a new post with a breakdown of a verse or two, until we make our way to the end. It’s 12 weeks, finishing up in mid-summer. I’m so super excited to share this study with y’all.

I have striven, for years, to serve God in every aspect of my lives. I’ve just always had this drawing to the Proverbs 31 woman and thought if I learned more about her, that would help me serve Him better. Seems to have it all together, doesn’t she y’all? She blesses her husband, manages her home, plants vineyards, weaves cloth, helps the poor, travels to the ends of the earth for good food and apparently never sleeps. She also is dignified, optimistic about the future, always wise, and amazingly kind. I mean, it’s not like she was busy or anything.

In the meantime, here I am just muddling through. Trying to balance running kids, laundry, housework, meal prep, doctor appointments and family time. She seemed to just glide gracefully through her million things while I have a hard time juggling my few.

I want everything to be perfect. Perfectly perfect. I want to have the perfect balance, perfect marriage, be a perfect parent and run a perfect household. I want to be the proverbs 31 woman. I want to do it all and be it all.

Going through this study, I realized it’s not about be “perfect”.  It’s about living life with purpose, diligence, priorities, forgiveness and repentance.

I have to say, Solomon is one of my favorite Bible authors. Song of Solomon is among my favorites as well, even having a tattoo of one of the verses on my back. So knowing that Solomon wrote Proverbs 31 made me super happy and made me want to learn more! Proverbs 31 is a beautiful poem of the characteristics of a virtuous woman and noble wife. While the book of Proverbs was written by Solomon but when we come to Chapter 31, there is a new voice. It’s a mother’s voice, telling her son what to look for in his life partner. It was Solomon writing the advice his mother, Bathsheba, had given him. Solomon wrote it using his pseudonym name, King Lemuel. It’s not just wisdom given from a mother to her son, it’s God’s Word. It’s what we, as women, are to attain to. What we should strive to be. Let’s read through it’s entirely before beginning our study.

This week we’ll begin our study on verse 10. It begins with A wife of noble character who can find?The King James Version has this verse as Who can find a virtuous woman? So what would this wife of noble character look like? When we look up the definition of virtuous, it says having or showing high moral standards and chaste. The definition of noble says having dignity and elevation. So set your standards and morals high ladies.