Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

A Proverbs 31 Woman {Week 3}

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 and HERE}.  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.

Hero’s Disguised as Husbands

This lucky girl is married to a hero. A burly, tattooed, bearded and bald hero.

He doesn’t wear a cape or leap from buildings. He’s an everyday hero in this house. A hard-working, tenderhearted guy. He takes care of his wife and his littles, normally putting their wants and needs before his own. He will completely stop what he is doing to help someone in need. And he follows God.

Sigh.

I’m so super thankful to say he’s also a hero outside of this household. In what way? He coaches Little League Cheerleading. Yes, you heard me right. Cheerleading. And those little girls adore their Coach Tank.

A few years ago, the cheerleading program was in danger of being shut down.  They needed someone to step forward and head it up and if no one was willing, it would have to be canceled.  Knowing how much this program means to these girls, my amazing husband stepped forward and took over.

It’s not that he has a heart for cheerleading, not in the least bit.  But he sure has a heart for these kids.  His goal every year is to be a positive male influence in their lives, someone they can look up to, someone they know they can always rely on and to just make their time with him fun.  Whether they want to tie his beard up in ribbons or tease him about his Packers, he always smiles and takes it in stride.

That right there is the best kind of hero.

I’m not sure he realizes what a complete hero he is to me, to us and to those little girls. It’s evident to me daily.

Here are a few little comments from parents and the girls. This is the reason he comes back year after year!

You are a great coach and leader!!!!!!

Thank you for all that you do. This program wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your hard work and dedication. So thank you again!

You do a wonderful job too bad we don’t have more like you!

Dear, Coach Tank (:
Thanks, I had a great time this year. Yes, I’m joining next year, I cant wait having you as a coach makes cheerleading much more fun you’re the best coach ever!!!!(:

Tank, I have had the pleasure of seeing you in actions with the girls and I have to say you are such a great male role model for the girls.

You’ve turned the cheerleading around and I see the smiles on these kids face. They look up to him so much, I know my daughter is looking for next year.

Oh, this man. A great hero. An everyday hero.

My hero.


Messy Beautiful Love {Book Review}

Messy Beautiful Love
Hope and Redemption for Real-Life Marriages
By Darlene Schacht
About the book:

Love gets messy. 

Financial problems, sickness, aging parents, a chronically unhappy spouse . . . trials will inevitably come along to threaten your marriage. No matter how long you’ve been married or how strong your relationship is, sooner or later you are going to have a mess to clean up. 

Messy Beautiful Love is about cleaning up messes God’s way, exchanging our ideas for his, and being prepared for both the best and the worst that marriage has to offer. 

Perhaps you’ve picked up this book because your marriage is messy already-now is the time to make a change. If your marriage is tidy, thank God-there is no better time to prepare for the future. 

Married life is never straightforward or simple for long. But the reality is this: when you surrender your relationship to God; when you lay your marriage at his feet; when you finally cede control; then and only then will you experience the blessing of marriage as he intended-this is the blessing of obedience. 

Messy Beautiful Love is an invitation to that obedience. An invitation to surrender. The cynical world says marriages don’t last. God knows better. Tune out the world and tune in to him. When you do that, a beautiful marriage is not only possible-it’s inevitable. That’s something to be excited about.

I have followed Darlene’s blog, Time Warp Wife, for years and absolutely love her writing style! So signing on to review this book was a no-brainer!

Darlene opens the book with the amazing testimony about how God saved her marriage. A raw, gut-wrenching story that reminds you how none of us are immune from our hearts straying from husband and home. She paints this wonderful, beautiful picture of grace that compares marriage with our Christian walk. The same grace that loves and forgives in marriage is that same grace we have received from Christ – that loves and forgives us every single day. A truly Christian marriage will mirror the relationship between Christ and his church.

From there she touches on the hard stuff: patience, surrendering our rights, submission, leadership, conflict, communication… Basically everything this stubborn, thick-headed girl needs to hear!

This book is written in an easy to read manner in down to earth language, goodness how I love that! Darlene shares wonderful stories from her own life that invite you into her home and make you feel like your chatting with her over coffee. This is a book I would recommend to every wife. It is a book for all women, no matter how long they’ve been married.

This book was provided to me free of charge by Book Look in return for my honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.