“In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.” Proverbs 31:19
Today’s worldly woman holds the iPhone and grasps her keys and purse with her fingers. God’s daughters need to return to the things that are truly worth knowing and doing.
A wife needs to know her husband, NOT know why her friend bought the red dress instead of the green dress. A mother needs to know her children, NOT know that someone said something hateful behind her back. A woman needs to know her God, NOT know how many people like her post on Facebook or Twitter. We work at connecting to people and things outside our family and home, but what are we really getting ourselves in for when we’re “connected?” More and more people’s lives are being ruined and even ended by all this “connecting.”
Gals, we simply don’t need to be informed about everything that we can get our hands. We only need to know what is good for us to know and do, and be content with that. Contentment with godliness is GREAT GAIN! Then God can continually bless us. Put your mind and hands to what God calls the work of women He will honor and crown one day.
In early times, the men believed that they could rise to public leadership and rise in godly prominence if they had a godly wife. A woman’s performance of her God-given tasks determined the failure or success of the family. Imagine that! Most women today would not want to think that this is true; that the success of her husband and her children depends on her. They don’t see themselves as “helpmates” for their husbands, nor teachers of their children.
Just like thread is precisely directed through the eye of a needle the Proverbs 31 woman directs her children into God’s Word for the Lord’s path; that they know Him personally and are eager to serve His good will. We need to direct our children in how to go through God’s open doors of opportunities. We need to encourage our children in how to get through life’s problems and persecutions – following Jesus Christ. But, you can’t teach them what you have not learned to do yourself.
Before my grand-daughter was old enough to read or write she would get her pen and Bible out and do what she saw her mommy (my daughter) doing with her Bible each morning. This little child has grown to see and believe things about God that most Church-going people don’t see or believe. Many of our grandchildren are opening their Bibles early in the morning alongside their parents. Oh how this blesses us and God!
When our grandson was 4 years old I found him alone with the door shut in his mom and dad’s bedroom, on their bed. His little hands were holding his Bible, which he couldn’t read yet. When I asked what he was doing he said, “I like quiet when I’m thinking about God.” Often they’d find him alone – listening and talking to Jesus.
All children are hungry to know God because they come from God. God creates us to know Him; to worship Him in truth and spirit. The faith of little children is real and strong because the world hasn’t influenced them yet, and the devil hasn’t deceived them yet.
As mothers we speak (stitch) into our children biblical teaching and praise for God. We reinforce (backstitch) each day to train them up – so that they will not fall apart with problems or disappointments. But, even if they do start to unravel we have a promise from God that they will return to the truth and love of the Lord one day no matter how old they are. (Proverbs 22:6) God knows how to mend and heal those we entrust to Him.
Most women don’t know how to sew or even mend clothing (let alone cook, keep house or discipline their own children). It’s too easy to replace something ripped or out of style. How many of us have thrown out a set of socks because a hole is in one sock? We don’t know how to mend it so we toss the thing out. How about marriages and families; do we do the same when they start to come apart? What about a government that starts to pull away from righteousness, from its moral constitution and covenant with God? We should know what to do as the true sons and daughters of God. This is why God gave us His Name, Spirit and Word.
When my marriage is falling apart, what should I do? When my faith is unraveling, what should I do? When my children are being pulled away from the truth at school, what should I do? Do I dare test God at His Word? Will He prove faithful in my day? What will He require of me? Will I be faithful no matter what?