Who Can Find a Woman of Strength - Part Two

This week I was able to move on to verses 13 and 14 of Proverbs 31. As you may recall, I felt the need to stay awhile in verses 10-12... and I'm glad I did. This past week I had the opportunity to put my meditations into practice regarding vs. 12.

I'm sure most of you can relate to a stressful morning when your spouse is all but preoccupied with issues of the day and his treatment of his wife and/or offspring leaves a lot to be desired. That was our Wednesday morning. And, like normal, I began to react with a cold, harsh, punitive attitude.

Immediately the Lord tugged at my heart and verse 12 ran through my head. With substantial effort, I attempted to switch gears: Warmth instead of cold; gentleness instead of harshness; grace, kindness and helpfulness in place of my punitive, judgmental attitude.

And what do you know? It blessed my husband! What victory! Less than 30 minutes later he returned to me with a soft, repentant heart. Though my purpose in blessing him was not to receive a grand apology, my blessing him ended up blessing me in the process. How kind of God!

My new study:

Proverbs 31: 13-14
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

Here we shift to this woman's more practical nature. At first glace, I didn't really feel like there was a lot here. It seemed a bit culturally out-of-date... but like all of the Bible, there was something to learn.

Verse 13

Perhaps I don't feel the Lord leading me to shear my sheep, (if I owned any) spin my wool, and shed some creative juices on my dust-laden sewing machine. (Yes, I have one. Does the simple possession factor count?). But at the very least, I am called to clothe my family.

Reluctantly, I think I could stand some growth in this area. My family is hardly running around naked, but my husband certainly doesn't look his best when he leaves for work in the morning. Why? Well, mostly for my self-created aversion to ironing. I own one. I try not to use it. End of story. Maybe I could actually turn it on sometime...

And once my husband's pants are ironed, what about hemming some of them? He's not the tallest tree in the forest and I'm stumped (no pun intended :-))to think of a pair of dress pants he owns that actually aren't baggy. It doesn't take a sewing expert to hem some pants... just a sewing machine and an iron. Ahem.

Verse 13b

I'm sure the Lord calls each of us to certain areas of growth concerning the above, but something that is relevant for all of us is the adverb: "eager". This Hebrew word actually insinuates doing a task with delight and pleasure. I hardly think I have to elaborate on this one. Yet beware: it holds the greatest punch of all.

Verse 14

1 Timothy 6:8 seems to reflect that food and clothing are the two most important things and it's not surprising that they are lumped together.

The ships in reference were likely the ships of Tarshish (Ez 27:25 and Is 2:16 and 1 Kg 10:12), which were known for their elaborate goods. The literal translation of the verse is that she is like these ships.

To try to reach some sort of clarification, I attempted to employ my college latin to translate the Vulgate passage. After shedding some blood, sweat, and translation toil... it didn't help. :-) Rats.

I think I'll spend some more time thinking through this verse this week. In the meantime, what basic facts I've been able to draw from the verse is this: she provides good things (and a good variety) for her family to eat. What do you think?

With that... I'm off to menu plan and visit the grocery. :-)