(continued from previous post)
All this to say about how busy the Proverbs 31 woman was and all she accomplished, it seems the key to being a good wife doesn´t have anything to do with housework or how much we can get done in a day.
Proverbs 31:30 says "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."
In the words of Kathleen Bolick, "A good wife isn't one that does everything perfectly around the house, a good wife is one who's heart is firmly rooted in God."
When I asked David what is his definition of a good wife, he said "to love me unconditionally, respect me, have patience with me, help me, and snuggle with me" hahaha ("snuggle" is one word I have already taught him how to say in English because there isn´t a similar work in Español)
So, although we do have a responsibility to make our homes like a "little bit of heaven" (from Kay Arthur´s book "A Marriage without Regrets"), it is not the most important thing that our homes are perfect or that we are perfect. What a relief. Because that isn´t even possible. The most important thing in marriage, and life in general, is fearing the Lord, loving Him most, and seeking Him.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Proverbs 31 Woman- Part One: setting up the pins
My life has been doing a lot of changing lately. Since this past May I have graduated college, gotten married, lived in Venezuela, worked with American mission teams in Maracaibo, and in the last few weeks, moved to Peru with my husband to begin a 10-month course in Bible translation.
Changes are always a little difficult for me and it always takes me a while to get settled in, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Even going from college to home took me at least a day to get back in the swing of things.
Marriage in itself is a HUGE change. It feels so weird to say that I am “married” and I have a “husband”. I think that I always had this feeling that being married would automatically make a person more mature, wise, older, and somehow different. Before getting married, I would listen to songs that two of my favorite artists, Sara Groves and Bethany Dillon had written about marriage and to me, they sounded so wise and mature.
Yesterday I read a devotion on the Proverbs 31 woman. If Jack Bauer was a Hebrew woman in the time of Proverbs, he would have been like her. This woman is crazy, she is sewing up a storm making all her family´s clothes, planting a vineyard, helping the poor, and bringing “good not harm” to her husband. She “does not eat the bread of idleness.” Well, I am certainly not a wife like that. I am struggling just to get homework done and do the simple cooking and cleaning. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving me a husband who helps me with the cooking (He is actually a really good cook!), cleaning, and homework (especially when I don´t understand the Spanish).
For some reason, it didn´t sink in how much busier being married was going to make my life.
And jumping in to classes full-time has made the busyness turn up a notch.
It continues to become more and more evident how important time management is going to be!
Today I figured out that I can listen to music for free on www.hearitfirst.com and one of the songs on Sara Groves´ new CD resonated in what I was thinking. The song is called “Setting up the pins”, and to me, it is about all the everyday tasks that have to be done. “Setting up the pins for knocking them down”. Cooking food only so it can be eaten. Washing dishes only so they can be dirtied again. Sweeping the floor so that it can be dirty again, etc.
You can hear it if you go to this website and click on “Fireflies and Songs, play all” on the right and scroll down to the song number 7.
http://www.hearitfirst.com/artisthome.aspx?f=artisthome&artist_id=1653
Here are the lyrics:
man in a silk tie heads downtown
setting up the pins for knocking em down
people in cars all rushing around
setting up the pins
let's get rich find a way around
setting up the pins for knocking em down
we'll get gadget with a whirring sound
for setting up the pins
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
you can find joy in the fertile ground
setting up the pins and knocking em down
you can try to fight it till you're anger drowned
setting up the pins
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
it can feel simple but it's really profound
setting up the pins
rent a tent, build a stage, throw a party, get a gown
buy a ticket, rent a car, pack a bag and leave town,
cook a dinner, clean the kitchen hit the light
brush your teeth, read a book, say a prayer good-night
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
it can feel simple but it's really profound...
my grandmother had a working song
hummed it low all day long
sing for the beauty that's to be found
in setting up the pins for knocking em down
Changes are always a little difficult for me and it always takes me a while to get settled in, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Even going from college to home took me at least a day to get back in the swing of things.
Marriage in itself is a HUGE change. It feels so weird to say that I am “married” and I have a “husband”. I think that I always had this feeling that being married would automatically make a person more mature, wise, older, and somehow different. Before getting married, I would listen to songs that two of my favorite artists, Sara Groves and Bethany Dillon had written about marriage and to me, they sounded so wise and mature.
Yesterday I read a devotion on the Proverbs 31 woman. If Jack Bauer was a Hebrew woman in the time of Proverbs, he would have been like her. This woman is crazy, she is sewing up a storm making all her family´s clothes, planting a vineyard, helping the poor, and bringing “good not harm” to her husband. She “does not eat the bread of idleness.” Well, I am certainly not a wife like that. I am struggling just to get homework done and do the simple cooking and cleaning. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving me a husband who helps me with the cooking (He is actually a really good cook!), cleaning, and homework (especially when I don´t understand the Spanish).
For some reason, it didn´t sink in how much busier being married was going to make my life.
And jumping in to classes full-time has made the busyness turn up a notch.
It continues to become more and more evident how important time management is going to be!
Today I figured out that I can listen to music for free on www.hearitfirst.com and one of the songs on Sara Groves´ new CD resonated in what I was thinking. The song is called “Setting up the pins”, and to me, it is about all the everyday tasks that have to be done. “Setting up the pins for knocking them down”. Cooking food only so it can be eaten. Washing dishes only so they can be dirtied again. Sweeping the floor so that it can be dirty again, etc.
You can hear it if you go to this website and click on “Fireflies and Songs, play all” on the right and scroll down to the song number 7.
http://www.hearitfirst.com/artisthome.aspx?f=artisthome&artist_id=1653
Here are the lyrics:
man in a silk tie heads downtown
setting up the pins for knocking em down
people in cars all rushing around
setting up the pins
let's get rich find a way around
setting up the pins for knocking em down
we'll get gadget with a whirring sound
for setting up the pins
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
you can find joy in the fertile ground
setting up the pins and knocking em down
you can try to fight it till you're anger drowned
setting up the pins
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
it can feel simple but it's really profound
setting up the pins
rent a tent, build a stage, throw a party, get a gown
buy a ticket, rent a car, pack a bag and leave town,
cook a dinner, clean the kitchen hit the light
brush your teeth, read a book, say a prayer good-night
everyone everywhere some way some how
are setting up the pins for knocking em down
it can feel simple but it's really profound...
my grandmother had a working song
hummed it low all day long
sing for the beauty that's to be found
in setting up the pins for knocking em down
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Philippians 3 (the Message)
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
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