The Woman Who Fears the Lord #6

The Woman Who Fears the Lord

 

A Study of Proverbs 31

Verse 15

"She gets up while it is still dark;

she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls."

It's a good thing that this verse is about a woman who lived in the biblical days because if she was my next door neighbor, I think I would strongly dislike her.  Can you just imagine having a cup of coffee with her? 

Picture me, in my robe, my hair all crazy, no make up and toothpicks holding my eyes open.  Across from me is my neighbor.  She's telling me about how she got up at 5:00 a.m. to make her hubby breakfast before he went to work.  (I'm sure she was dressed, had her hair all done and makeup on.  She sounds like that kind of gal.)  Then, her nanny arrived, along with the gardener, her personal trainer, and her maid.  They all ate the delicious breakfast that she had prepared as she reviewed the day's agenda with them.  As they scattered off to do their various jobs, her children woke up.  Bleary eyed, the children sat down at the table and chatted about the plans for day and what a wonderful breakfast their mom had made them. 

This would be the first and only time I would have had coffee with this neighbor.  She can just stay home and drink her own coffee.  It probably tastes better than mine, anyway.

I need to refocus...

What can a woman from the 21st century learn from this verse?

The woman from Proverbs 31 got up while it was still dark to make food for her family and their servants.  Considering there was no electricity and everything had to be made from scratch, it's no wonder she got up before the sun!  It would take all morning to make enough food to feed everyone for the whole day.

With the invention of convenience food, crock pots and appliances we don't really have to worry about getting up before the crack of dawn.  Do we?

Does that mean this verse doesn't pertain to us?  No, I think it still does.

Convenience food is not the healthiest choice.  Preparing food from scratch is much better for you.  I would love to get to the point where I grind my own flour, grow all my own veggies and have my children fetch the eggs from the henhouse.  (I'm laughing at myself and the mental images this gives me.)  As a family, we are slowly moving towards doing more and more things from scratch.  Snail's pace slow, but at least we're moving.

For me, dinner is the meal that takes planning and more preparation.  Defrost the chicken, put the roast and potatoes in the crock pot, have all the ingredients needed for the casserole, start the bread machine before I leave, etc.  Sometimes, I have to get up 20 minutes earlier so that dinner time will run smoothly.  (Well, more smoothly.  When you have two boys, a husband and two cats, you can't expect miracles.) 

I've been working a lot of overtime the last few weeks and all my planning has been thrown out the window.  We've been eating a lot of take out and scrambling to come up with meals at the last minute.  Not very Proverbs 31ish.

If I am going to use this verse to guide me to being the woman, wife and mother that God wants me to be, I will need to get back to planning and take the few extra minutes in the morning to get things rolling.

Oh, and I need some servants.

The link to the series "The Woman Who Fears the Lord"