I remember the first time I read Proverbs 31 when I was about 13. It was slightly over my head. I think at that age my spirit picked up more than my head ever did. Come to think of it, I don't think I have changed much in that regard. But at 13, I do recall recognizing one thing: that these passages were very, very important. I remember being very quiet after I read it the first time. I inherently knew how insanely holy those passages were. They were important to me as a young girl, knowing one day I'd be a wife and mother. They were important to me as a friend, a sister, and a daughter.
She is worth far more than the most precious diamonds. She is not spiteful. She is trustworthy. She is generous always. She creates. She makes. She designs. She cooks for her family. She is faithful. She is kind. Grace is on her tongue. She speaks with discernment. She does not compete with other women. She loves without reservation and without condition. She prepares. She wakes early. She goes to bed late. She never quits. She never gives up. She will help anyone. Anywhere. Anytime. She actually wants to. She is skilled. She is diligent. She doesn't worry. She trusts. She respects her husband. She brings him honor. She smiles. At anyone. She laughs. Even when things are hard. She is a safe place. A place of rest. Her children love her. Her husband praises her. And she fears God. She reveres him. She loves him completely. And that makes her beautiful.
I am in awe of women and the things they are called to carry. The power with which they were created simply astounds me. Young women, old women, and everything in-between. I only wish that more women knew the sanctity of their heart. The beauty of it. Maybe then they'd let God protect it. Grow it. Mold it. So she can be who she's truly called to be. With the kind of beauty created by him.
Because when we get down to it there is only one thing that makes us beautiful. He does.
It is HIM in us that makes us that way. It is his glory, his honor, his love, and his power. And it is in our revering of him that we can draw from that beauty. Beauty not of the world. The kind of beauty that never fades, dulls, or dissipates. The kind of beauty that draws people to a woman from the love of God nestled so deep inside her. The kind of beauty that you don't have to wear makeup for or buy new clothes for (Those are fun, but you get it). Those don't last. The kind of beauty that doesn't have to compare itself with the beauty of another...because eternal beauty (beauty from the Lord) does not compare. It is pure. The kind of beauty where you don't have to talk a certain way, act like someone you're not, or "dress the part" to look beautiful. The kind of beauty that doesn't depend on "charm."
Beauty isn't something you try to be. It's something you already are. It's not something you have to get. It's something you receive. And you receive it from him. Not from anything or anyone else.
So don't ever let someone tell you differently.
"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting... "
Charm: the power of arousing admiration
Deceptive: a dishonest act or statement. A liar.
Charm is not real. It is not honest. It is not true. And it will not last. By definition it cannot be. It's motives will always show. Eventually.
Wordly beauty will not last. It is temporal. It fades. The only beauty that lasts is the genuine kind that comes straight from the heart. The heart that is for God.
Wordly beauty will not last. It is temporal. It fades. The only beauty that lasts is the genuine kind that comes straight from the heart. The heart that is for God.
A beautiful woman fears the Lord. And that is all. That is all she fears. And that is all she needs.
I see too many women trying to be beautiful. They try and they try and they try. They strive. Anxious and striving. Frusrated and striving. Charming and striving. They don't believe that they already are. They can't see it. They can't feel it for reasons- by way of sin and brokenness and the fall- which are far too many to mention. True beauty is not of the common kind. It is not of the worldy, conventional kind. It's of the Godly kind. People, believers or not, will notice it in her. They won't fully understand why they are drawn to her, but they are and can't really explain why. Because that beauty is eternal. It is from and of God. It is un-matched. No dress, no hair, no perfume, and no seemingly perfect and enticing charm can out-do the beauty and splendor that is our Creator. And he created us women to represent those parts of who he is. How blessed are we! We'd serve him well to let him have his way with us. No matter what it costs. To let him shine his face through everything that we are so we might reflect more of him. To make us beautiful.
Proverbs 31.
A good woman is hard to find,
and worth far more than diamonds.
Her husband trusts her without reserve,
and never has reason to regret it.
Never spiteful, she treats him generously
all her life long.
She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,
and enjoys knitting and sewing.
She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places
and brings back exotic surprises.
She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast
for her family and organizing her day.
She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.
First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work,
is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
diligent in homemaking.
She's quick to assist anyone in need,
reaches out to help the poor.
She doesn't worry about her family when it snows;
their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.
She makes her own clothing,
and dresses in colorful linens and silks.
Her husband is greatly respected
when he deliberates with the city fathers.
She designs gowns and sells them,
brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.
Her clothes are well-made and elegant,
and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.
When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say,
and she always says it kindly.
She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,
and keeps them all busy and productive.
Her children respect and bless her;
her husband joins in with words of praise:
"Many women have done wonderful things,
but you've outclassed them all!"
Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.
The woman to be admired and praised
is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.
Give her everything she deserves!
Festoon her life with praises!
It is far too easy to get caught up in what culture tells a woman is beautiful. In what culture tells a woman she ought to be. It's a deadly, soul-killing, slow-death of a trap. And I despise it. If I'm going to hate, I will hate what God hates and I hate deception. I hate lies. And I hate that it tears women apart. Apart from God, from their families, from other women, and from their own soul. I see so many women trying to be beautiful like some other woman they know. Or an ideal that they've allowed the enemy to imagine up in their mind. What woman hasn't? I look around and I see women living lesser than. Seemingly content with being ordinary. They're comparing. Jealous. Looking to use "charm" to get what her heart longs for. Women, CHRISTIAN women, so desperate to know and believe they're beautiful that they'll do just about anything. Tangled up in a messy relationship, a dysfunctional family, vanity, a boy...or just living life on the surface, unwilling to tread in deeper water out of fear, inconvenience, or shame; all the while, they're outwardly maintaining face and "dressing up" in their "beauty."
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be that. And frankly, if we all acknowledge it, deep down I don't think any of us do. Yet the reality is, the cost of being a woman who is "more" is a rather large cost now isn't it? But knowing the choice, to be lesser than or to be more as he's called us, how can we not pick the latter? How can we consciously choose to not live deeper? How can we consciously choose the easier, more traveled, wider road? How can we, knowing one day we will be a wife (if we aren't already) and a mother (if we aren't already) and all the lives- men and women- that we will touch, how can we not accept the charge to endure whatever trials and whatever sufferings that befall us so we may become women of faith; and to do so with joy because of who he is, what he's done, and what he promises. He PROMISES things to us. We must know what these are. And we must not ever forget them. We cannot and will not ever be reflections of proverbs 31 if we choose the shallow, the white picket fence, or the comfortable. That is not faith. And aren't we women of faith? We can't reflect his beauty unless he is in us...so deeply, so rooted, so passionately, so firm, fixed, and steadfast; all so that he can miraculously explode straight through our self and our flesh and radiate his divine nature in us. He is everything that is beautiful. Everything. And he will make us into her (if we dare to ask) without fail.
So we let him break us open and break us down- however that looks. Because frankly, resisting the breaking is more painful than allowing it. So we bend to his will, we echo his call, and we completely drown, drench, and saturate all that we are in the love of our Father, our Husband, our First Love, and our Best Friend. And in doing so, he makes us in to the warrior, the disciplined, the early riser, the late to bed, the caretaker, the kind voice, the gentle place, the safe home, the not-worried, the laughter, the fighter, the seeker, the helper, the trustworthy, the loyal, the respected, the blessed, the loved and the beautiful.
Yes. It will cost us something. It will cost us everything. It has already cost me a lot. More than I ever thought or imaged or was seemingly prepared for. And it still isn't over. Not in this life! It has been humiliating and at times, seemingly impossible. Oh, but it never is. There hasn't been one thing he's taken from me or that I've "lost" that hasn't been for my good. It's all his anyway...isn't it? Shouldn't our love for him compel us to give it all...and count it a privilege?
The cost of choosing a wider road is a much higher toll to pay. Ask any (honest) woman who has chosen it. So I (we) will gladly edge and step along on the narrow road, gripping at the cliffs and rocks to keep us from falling. And heck, if we "fall," then so be it. We keep going, keep trusting, no matter what.
At least then we're being who we really are. Women of faith.
1 comment:
AMEN!
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