God, being a helpmate, and me

So today I finished Proverbs!  :)  And as most of you know when I say I finished proverbs today, that means I read Proverbs 31 today.  I could not help but update my blog.  :)  Nothing fancy, but I want to walk you through my road down proverbs and show you how chapter 31 did I really good job of closing the book for me in one area.


All throughout Proverbs there are verses about wives... good, bad, or ugly.
You will need three definitions to get the full meaning of some of these verse (it tends to help me to have a definition instead of bringing my own presuppositions into the text)...


Discretion--the quality of being discreet, especially with the reference to one's own actions or speech.
Contentious--tending to argument or strife; quarrelsome.
Vexing--to irritate; annoy; provoke.


Okay, the first verse I want to take you to has nothing to do with being a wife in specific, but it does have something to do with being a godly woman.


`Proverbs 11:22
"As a ring of gold in a swine's snout so is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion."


Knowing what to say or not say, knowing what to do or not do, being able to make wise choices throughout daily life, that is what makes a woman beautiful.  So you can have all that worldly beauty there is and yet if you don't have discretion you are ugly.  You are not a delight to be around (I mean really does a ring being in a pigs snout make you want to be around the pig anymore).  So keep discretion in mind and let's move on to the wife verses, and obviously I have no experience in this field, but I did learn a lot from all of these verses.  I think all woman can learn from these verses, whether they are single and preparing for marriage, married, or living the single life for God's glory.  These are things we all need to be learning... to glorify God and look more like Christ daily.


`Proverbs 12:4
"An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who shames him is like rottenness in his bones."

`Proverbs 19:13-14

"A foolish son is destruction to his father, and the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.  House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD."

`Proverbs 21:9

"It is better to live in a corner of a roof then in a house shared with a contentious woman."

`Proverbs 21:19

"It is better to live in a desert land then with a contentious and vexing woman."  (OUCH!)

`Proverbs 27:15-16

"A constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious woman are alike; he who would restrain her restrains the wind, and grasps oil with his right hand."

So, the contentious, vexing, annoying, argumentative woman is not a blessing to her husband (or anyone else).  We need to throw these things from us... but we can't just put off, we have to be putting something one or else the old habits will just come back.  So what do we need to be putting on?  Let's go to scripture to find out.....

`Proverbs 31:26

"She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."

I only picked out one verse for this part because if you want to know more about what you should put on you can read proverbs to understand what wisdom is all about and throughout scripture we learn what a follower of Christ should look like.  But this verse is such a contrast to the others.  Instead of arguing and vexing we should instead be opening our mouths in wisdom and understanding and teaching kindness to those around us.  Instead of arguing with those around us we need to have discretion about what to say or not say.

Now finally, here is your earthly reward for putting off your flesh and putting on Christ...

`Proverbs 31:11-12
"The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life."


`Proverbs 31:28-29
"Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her saying: 'Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.'"


Instead of your husband dreading what you will say when he walks in the door, he will praise you all the day long.  Your children and husband will bless you.  You will be the proper helpmate and no longer a hindrance to your husbands ministry.

`Proverbs 18:22

"He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD."

`Proverbs 31:30
"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."


~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, trials, and me

So I know when you probably saw the title of this one you probably thought, "Wow.  What is she going to talk about this time?"  But it is not going to be about the purpose of trials, because I think we all agree on that point.  It is going to be about things I have seen going on around me that I find very convicting.  Things that I see myself and others do every day and don't even think twice about it.


As Christian's I think we tend to walk through trials with the "If I can just get past this" mentality.  This scares me.  If we focus too much on getting past the trial then we aren't going to learn what God would teach us through the trial.  Yes, I believe it is okay to look forward to getting past your valley of the shadow and onto the other side and to find hope in the fact that it is only a season of life, but we should not be living for that.  We should be living to became more like God and right now you will became more like God by going through this trail.  I see myself doing this often.  And I have come to realize that as I focus on just getting past this I not only don't learn things that I should be learning throughout this time, but I also miss the small, every day blessings that God has surrounded me with.  It is all about learning to be content.  Realizing that if you are living for God and His glory, you should be fine with wherever you are, because He has deemed it BEST for you and it is what will make you look more like Him.


Past trials are the biggest help in present trials.  As Christians we need to realize this.  So often I see people going through a trial and once they get through it they just want to forget that is ever happened.  It is too painful a memory to hang onto and it isn't at all a happy one.  But if we forget all our past trials then we aren't going to learn the lesson that God is good--yesterday, today, and forever.  We lose the yesterday and as a result we aren't sure if He is good today and who knows about forever.  Instead of wishing away our past trials, we should be remembering God's grace and faithfulness to get us through those trials.  If we remember that God is the only One that got us through that trial (and He was faithful to get us through it) then we will remember in our current trials that He will once again be faithful and get us through.  Instead of looking at all the pain and hardship throughout the trial, look to the grace of God and the growth in yourself through that trial to motivate you to be content in the trials you are in today.  Remember God's faithfulness yesterday in order to help you get through today.


~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, planning, and me

So, I am a big planner!  Anyone who knows me well knows I like to plan ahead.  Now planning, I don't think, is not a bad thing in and of itself, but here is where I hit problems--when I plan and I'm unwilling to hand those plans over to God knowing that my plans may not be His plans.  It's not an easy thing for me to make plans and then hand them over, knowing that they might not happen.  It has been a long hard road learning this lesson, which is not yet learned to the fullest. So I have come across a lot of good verses in Proverbs and I thought I would put them all on here for any others out there that are also struggling with handing their plans over to God.  Hopefully this encourages you and challenges you.  :)


`Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and so not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

So, we need to trust in the Lord who knows everything and not on our own tiny little amount of knowledge... God knows all and He knows what will be best for us and He will make our path according to that.  He will always give us what is good and best for us, even if it doesn't seem like it to us at the time (Ps. 84:11).

`Proverbs 4:18
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

MacArthur says that, "the path of the believer is one of increasing light, just as a sunrise begins with the faint glow of dawn and proceeds to the splendor of noonday."  I think this is such a cool verse.  It paints a beautiful picture of the work of God along our path and how He is constantly molding us to look more like Him until the day we become completely like Him.  We need to remember in the midst of planning that whether our plans go through and they are what is best for us, or whether God has other plans in mind that are better, either way He is going to continue His work in us until the day we are completely holy and righteous.  That should be a great comfort to us.  :)

`Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Sometimes our plan are not good for us and we can't see that, but God can. He sees the big picture and sometimes He is saving us from ourselves.  You could think that whatever you are planning is even pleasing to the Lord and will bring Him more glory, but God knows all and He sees the end result and He knows what will bring Him the most glory.  We have to trust that.  When your plans change and your not sure why and it's really hard to trust right now, just remember that God knows best and He may indeed be saving you from the "way of death".

`Proverbs 16:1
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

Plan and simple--we can plan all we like, but in the end God is the one who decides.

`Proverbs 16:3
Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established.

MacArthur says that commit means, "total trust and submission to the will of God." And if you trust and submit to Him with our works then our plans will be established, but MacArthur says that Solomon is talking about God fulling our "righteous plans" here.  We really need to be first and foremost living for Him and daily learning to love Him more and become more like Him and not focusing on our plans.  But this verse also got me to thinking, "Are my plans righteous? Am I planning them because I think they will bring God more glory or am I planning them with selfish motives?"  You need to think through your plans and know the reason behind them.  And even if you think that they are righteous and will honor God and bring Him more glory... they might in fact not and God will take us off the "way of death" and keep our path toward light and righteousness.

`Proverbs 16:9
The mind of a man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.

Plan and simple once again--we can plan all we like, but the LORD is the one that makes our path and chooses what direction we will go, what direction will bring Him the most glory.  And if our focus is on bringing God more glory through our lives, then we should be content with where we are.  If we are focused on God and not ourselves then we will have humble and content spirits knowing that God is receiving more glory from where we are in the moment... whether the sun in shining down on you or the road is marked with suffering, you will be content and joyful knowing that God is receiving more glory.

`Proverbs 16:25
There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

So, this verse was already in Proverbs and I already posted it in the blog, but I thought I would do it again because it is good to be reminded.  We often think we know best, but most times we in fact don't.

Hope that this encouraged, but also challenged you to be content with where you are now.  There are more in the first few chapters in Proverbs, but these are my favorites and the ones that stuck out most to me.   I hope you are blessed by this and I pray that the next time your plans change you would remember that God is in control and your "new path" may just be saving you from the "way of death" and it will bring God more glory, and I pray that you find joy in that fact.

~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.