Virtues of an Excellent Wife

Today I began the most talked about chapter about women, Proverbs 31.
To type out all that my heart desires would be one very very long post! So I am going to divide it up and spend just an extra couple of days meditating on this chapter.
Today I am going to simply cover 4 verses. :)
Proverbs 31 begins with King Lemuel sharing with his son the words his mother taught him. In verse 3, the instruction is to not give his strength to women. Whereas, in verse 10, it begins speaking of the excellent or virtuous woman.
To me, it seems this is instructing a man to find a wife, not to simply enjoy multiple women. Interesting, as it seems even in today's culture, less and less men are getting married and settling down. Instead, their youth is spent enjoying many women. These women are not the same as the excellent wife mentioned in verse 10.
So, what is different about this excellent wife?
She has value! The kinds of women that it is implying about in verse 3 are loose and are probably the promiscuous type. The kind that are giving themselves to multiple men and are seen as objects instead of priceless treasures.
"The excellent wife who can find?" She is a rare treasure. She cannot be found among the multiple loose women mentioned in verse 3. She is different from those women. She values herself. She has no desire to be treated like an object.  In verse 11, it mentions that her husband can trust in her. She is committed. She isn't going to be anywhere else. This makes her husband rich. Not necessarily in material things, but gives her husband value as a person. She has her husband's heart. This goes so beyond the superficial attraction of the multiple women in verse 3. This is a deeper relationship and trust that is precious and priceless when found. She is committed for life and desires to do good by her husband her entire life.
What I find interesting is that there is no "if" clause in these verses. It is just a matter of fact that no matter what she will do him good and not harm all her life. As any married woman knows, our husbands are not perfect (and neither are we) and it isn't always easy. But we need to always lift up our husbands and show them that regardless of their flaws, we will always do right by him. We won't hurt him, tear him down, or slice him with our words or actions.
What do these things do? They break the trust between a husband and wife.
So, as we strive to be excellent wives, let's be sure to uphold the trust that our husbands have in us. Let's build our husbands up with our words and actions. Let's remember that we have our husbands heart. Let's be excellent wives for the amazing men in our lives!

And His Wives Turned Away His Heart....

We are all familiar with King Solomon. He sought after God's wisdom, wrote a few books in the Bible, and had MANY wives. Seven HUNDRED to be exact, PLUS 300 concubines!
But, clearly, as we look at the life of Solomon, this was not a wise decision. In I Kings 11, the first part of the chapter shows how these wives turned his heart away from God.
Solomon is known as a great leader and King, but sadly, he allowed his wives to influence him. Solomon's father, David, is known as a man after God's own heart, but this was not the case for Solomon.
As wives, we have a great responsibility. Our husbands need our support and need us to continually help them keep their focused on Christ! Let's make sure we don't turn our husbands hearts away from Christ, but let's continually find ways to knit his heart to Christ's!
How can we do this?
Pray continually for your husband!
Allow him to lead you and your family!
Encourage him continually as he leads!
Lift him up with praises instead of tearing him down with accusations!
In a way, we each hold our husbands hearts and can have a very powerful influence on his life! Let's make it our goal to be wives who turn our husbands hearts to God!

A Queen Seeking Wisdom

In 1 Kings chapter 10, we read about the Queen of Sheba and how she was in awe of what God was doing for King Solomon and how she sought him out to learn of his wisdom and his God.
I couldn't help but see how this queen had to first humble herself and realize that even though she was a queen, she did not have all the answers.
My favorite part of this chapter is the end of verse 5, where it says "there was no more breath in her."
She had told Solomon all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered all of her questions, and shared his wisdom with her and then showed her all that God had done. She was speechless!
Yes, Solomon was just a man, but what a neat parallel if we consider ourselves as the Queen of Sheba coming to Christ and sharing all that is on our minds and Christ bestowing on us His great wisdom and then opening our eyes to all that He has done, is doing, and will do in our lives!
THIS, to me, was such a beautiful and clear picture of what our relationship to Christ ought to look like!
We need to share with Christ all that is on our minds and hearts, seek His wisdom, learn from Him (through His Word), and then see the wonderful ways He works in our lives!
Then you read down to verse 13 which says, "And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired...."
What does your relationship with Christ look like? When was the last time you poured out your heart and mind to Him? When was the last time you sought after His wisdom? Has Christ ever taken your breath away?

PRAISE THE LORD!

This morning I read Psalms 134, 146-150.
What phrase did I see over and over in the chapters? PRAISE THE LORD!
There was no clause in there about when we should praise the Lord and when we should't. It simply states over and over to praise Him.
This doesn't mean we are to praise Him only when things are great and life is good. This means we are to praise Him in the hardest moments of life when it feels we can't go on any longer and no one seems to care moments too!
This is where we struggle the most. It is so hard to praise the Lord when our world appears to be crashing in around us. Instead we want to place blame and cry out to God asking "Why? Why have you brought me this low? Why are you allowing me to go through these valley's?"
Yet the command is simply to praise Him.
Praise Him when you are sick.
Praise Him when you are well.
Praise Him when you are sad.
Praise Him when you are happy.
Praise Him when being a parent is a struggle.
Praise Him when your children are a joy.
Praise Him when you are struggling financially.
Praise Him when you are debt free.
Praise Him when you are hurting.
Praise Him when you are joyful.
Praise Him through the tears.
Praise Him through the laughter.
Praise Him in the big things.
Praise Him in the little things.
PRAISE HIM!

In this life, it is easy to have an earthly vision. We see the here and now and sometimes life can be most dismal and hard and we feel stuck under a dark cloud of gloom. We allow our situations and circumstances to get the best of us. It is easy to Praise the Lord during the joyful, happy, everything is perfect moments of life, but maybe the darker days wouldn't seem quite as long, hard and dark if we practiced Praising the Lord regardless!

A simple reminder, but one I needed today. Find a way to Praise Him today regardless of where you are in life! We all go through mountaintop moments and times in the valley. I do believe we can find a sweetness even in the valley if we choose to Praise the Lord!