My scripture promise today comes from the New Living Translation regarding the example of womanhood all women of God try to attain unto. I have to admit…it’s no easy task. At least not for me. Womanhood…Motherhood…Wifehood…neither of these roles are for the faint of heart. Often times we “do”only because we “love”. Loving others, that is, not ourselves. Sometimes the role(s) can make her want to run and hide…can make her sit alone and cry…and then there are those times when she stands and feels strong and proud (in a good sense) for she senses and she sees that much has been accomplished…and there are also those moments when she throws her head back, allowing the wind to sail through her hair, teeth shining, and she laughs…for she does not fear the days to come. Her trust is not in what she can do or in what she sees at the moment, but in what GOD can do.
Proverbs 31:25-27,30 She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness….Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
The greatest strength a woman can possess is when she walks in the strength and love of the Lord. It is of the Lord’s strength that she endows herself in courage, tenacity, vitality…she knows it’s the LORD’s strong arm that holds her up so that she can walk in good character, excellence of spirit, virtue. She laughs without fear of the future because she knows in Whom she believes! She truly believes that He holds all the world in His hand and if He can hold something as big as that, then He has no problem holding her and her cares.
To be a Proverbs 31 woman of God this woman speaks words that are thoughtful,perceptive, tactful…her instructions are performed with affection,tactfulness, patiences. She oversees her household with much diligence.
Whew…if this passage is read in the right spirit, it will bring one down to their knees! Do you feel about an inch tall now?! I do. It’s not every day that I have my act together like this woman does…actually truth speaking here…most days I don’t. This is a character that we must aspire to though. It really is a must. We must strive. Never give up!
We say, “I love you” but do we show it? LoVe is a vErB…action verb. We may not feel like being nice…we may want to be left alone…but we press onward in the “doing” anyway…why?...because LoVe is a verb. To truly love takes action.
Those stained underwear your husband left in the bathroom, those shoes of family members left by the door (instead of in the closet) that you keep tripping over because it’s “their job” to pick up, those sticky wrappers on your child’s dresser…all that laundry you wash…all those meals you cook…all that vaccuming/dusting/etc. you do…that’s LOVE.
Love is a verb. Love is the putting on of work-boots. When someone does a simple act of kindess, an act that you knew it took some of their time to do…that is the best romance, that is the best action of love.
You are never more beautiful as when you are clothed in His wardrobe. Charm is phony and fake. It makes a person unreliable…and makes those around these kind of people truly “sick”. The outward beauty of a woman does not last (trust me—the wrinkles and bags show up one day!:-D), the batting of the eyelashes (so to speak) is deceptive…but she who possesses true beauty—the woman who truly is alluring, appealing, classy, radiant, refined—is so because she has put her trust in the Lord…and allows it to show to those around her without pretense. This woman walks her days out in assurance,confidence, and faith in the GOD of whom she has relationship with and does not have to put on airs to show it.
If you’re having a hard time loving today…instead of wearing your house-coat and bunny slippers, sitting on the couch letting the mess pile up around you, feeling sorry for yourself, and eating dorito chips and bon-bons…why not go into your ‘closet of prayer’ and pull out of the ‘closet of prayer’ your clothes of strength and dignity. You will feel blessed. You won’t be able to keep a smile from your face or out of your heart…even while you pick up the messes around you that were created by someone else. Do something,today, that you know will be pleasing to those you say you love. Even if it goes unnoticed by those around you…God sees…He knows it…and He loves you for it.
I Corinthians 13:4-8 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Bearet hall things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth
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