The Key to Proverbs 31...Stop Beating Yourself Up

Yesterday was just an amazing day. I walked the kids to school, went and worked out with a friend, came home, cleaned, picked up the kids, worked at home and got a lot of things done. Including reading my Bible. How many of us hear about Proverbs 31 and that we should do this, be able to handle that, our homes should be perfect and perfectly decorated, our children should be perfect, we should be able to do it all. The Proverbs 31 woman did!

I am here to tell you...NO, SHE DID NOT!! I am going to surmise here that the Proverbs 31 woman was a woman of stature (not size, but prominence and money). This woman clearly comes from wealth. Proverbs 31 tells us in verse 15 & I want everyone to read this slowly and understand it...'She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household. AND (capitals mine) a portion for her maidservants.'

I don't know about you, but this morning, my eyes were opened...she had maidservants. She probably ensured they were taken care of, but she didn't do it all alone! I recently was invited to someones home that was beautifully furnished, decorated, it was gorgeous! It was huge, the kitchen would be my dream come true. However, I happen to know that the owners, have lucrative careers and they do not do the cleaning and up keep on their own.

How many of us run around all day and most of the night cleaning and dusting, cooking and half killing ourselves because we are trying to 'measure up,' to the proverbs woman & many times, we beat ourselves up that we can't.

I am not saying there are not women out there who can...I am saying not everyone can. If we are working moms all we can do, is do our best! Some women have more Proverbs in them than others. I cannot express how I was born with a lack of decorating sense. My idea of decorating?? Hand some pictures up and call it done! I promise myself with each home we move into I will make it look perfect and beautifully decorated...who am I kidding?

To steal a phrase from my husband...if my home is going to be perfectly decorated...well lets just say, 'people get paid very good money to do these kinds of things!' In other words, I would need to hire someone to do it.
It isn't my calling, it isn't my gifting and I accept that.

Lets continue on with today's lesson: verse 16: 'she considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard.' Lets examine this verse closer. You can't buy a field without money! Bottom line, no ifs and's or buts about it. No money, no field, no food, no gas, etc.. It doesn't tell us what kind of field she bought, but it had to have something in it because it talks about her profits from this field.

It doesn't say with the money she had left over from the purchase of the field, it says from 'her profits, she plants a vineyard.' So we know she had maidservants and money so I will take a stab in the dark here and say she didn't do the physical work of the planting. Then again, maybe she did. Many vineyard owners take pride in planting those vines and watching them grow, but they also have help to keep the vineyards up and running.

We do know she was educated and an excellent seamstress as her family and servants were clothed in Scarlet and that alone tells us she was well to do as Scarlet was a color worn by people who had wealth. Educated because she could handle all the money she had coming in and made profits for her family.

She make linen garments and sold them and I don't know about then, but even today, Linen isn't a cheap fabric, so she made clothing for men who purchased them and made sashes for the merchants. She was a busy woman, no doubt about it and she kept everything in order in her home, her family and her husband loved her and praised her.

The last verse that stands out to me is verse 29: 'Many daughters have done well,but you excel them all.' Yes, their are women that excel in homemaking, others excel in quilting, sewing, baking, cooking and business. God did not give us all the same calling and that is what I am trying to say here.

Melinda Gates is a great philanthropist, but she wouldn't be without Bill's money and the help of servants, and secretaries and other people that allow her to concentrate on helping others. Mother Teresa was an amazing servant of God and helped the poorest of the poor...however, she wasn't married, didn't have children, didn't have a home to clean, she was God's servant because she chose to give her all to others!

Without a doubt in my heart, I am very loved by God and my family and that is what matters and I know that you are all loved by your families and that my friends is what matters. NOT, someone else's opinion of us or what someone thinks we should be, it is God and family.

Now, go out have a blessed day and stop beating yourself up. Some of us just aren't meant to be super human, super women, we are meant to do things they way we do them because that is how God created us!