Do you ever have the inkling that you’re learning something—some truth about this something that’s a big part of your life right now—but that something you’re learning is only peaking through and you really don’t have a clue how all the pieces fit together yet?
Maybe that makes sense. Over the past couple years, probably since the end of highschool, I’ve learned to finally (after a couple weeks of the somethings peaking through) recognize the somethings and realize that they sort of piece together, but I really don’t understand it yet, and just say, ” God, I don’t know what it is yet, but just get me there. ”
Are you lost yet? Sorry this was so abstract.
Basically, the “somethings” that have been peaking through in my life is figuring out this whole wife-thing. Not all of it. Just one aspect of it. I talked about my struggle with finding worth in homemaking (because I really enjoy it, but felt guilty for it) on Hannah’s Delights, Dismays, & Detours a week or so ago. And now I feel like I’ve learned a little bit more.
I’ve been reading and re-reading the Proverbs 31 chapter this week. I read it in the ESV, and the MSG, and the Voice, and the AMP—trying to find some validation for spending my time doing wife-ly things.
Which is basically what P31 wife does. A lot.
But honestly that’s beside the point. The really cool part was when I kept reading past the end of the chapter, into the “AMP Notes” section. Those notes can be helpful. (Read Prov. 31:10-31 first, if you haven’t before. Or just for a refresher.)
First the note-writer wrote that it’s a shame so many people read Prov. 31 and think the ideal wife is confined “merely to the literal sense [of the chapter]—her ability as homemaker, as in the picture of Martha of Bethany.” But, as the note-writer points out, it wasn’t Martha at all, but Mary, whom Jesus affirmed in Luke 10:42—”Jesus said, ‘Mary has chosen the good portion … which shall not be taken away from her.'”
So if the P31 woman shouldn’t be lauded strictly for her homemaking skills, why is she held in such high regard? What made her this most “excellent wife?” It’s probably because she rose while it was still dark, isn’t it?
The note-writer writes, “In what way did she ‘excel them all’? In her
spiritual and
practical
devotion
to God,
which permeated every area
and relationship in her life.” (Emphasis added)
Dang son. But wait, there’s more:
“All seven of the Christian virtues (II Pet. 1:5) are there, like colored threads in a tapestry. Her secret, which is open to everyone, is the Holy Spirit’s climax to the story. In Prov. 31:30, it becomes clear that the ‘reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord,’ which is ‘the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom,’ is put forth as the true foundation for a life which is valued by God and her husband as ‘far about rubies or pearls’ (Prov. 31:10).”
This was one of those major pieces that peaked through this week, as I learn about this “something,” this what does it mean to be a wife.
Even though it’s not biblical, I am seeing that I believe something along the lines of—I am only as valuable to God as I am productive.
The reverent and worship fear of the Lord … is put forth as the true foundation for a life which is valued by God.
Broasted.
Scattered in all Directions 