— Discipleship, Five Minute Friday —

Influence of the Proverbs 31 Woman

The Proverbs 31 woman does more than keep her affairs and home in order while serving her family and loving her husband and community.

She moves forward in time and embraces truths posed throughout the New Testament including discipling Gospel truths as a Titus 2 woman.

My life leans slightly towards chaotic. In my mind, the house is a disaster, the kids are too rowdy, my husband is too sloppy, and I am not quite pulled together. I have three calendars with different things written on them, two different running grocery lists, piles of so much paper work and school papers, and books stacked all over the house. Hidden behind doors are bursting craft closets and 11 years worth of homeschool curriculum. I am not the model Proverbs lady. I am like her messy twin-sister.  I have some qualities, but I am highly lacking in all the others.

As she reaches into the future with a perfectly decorated home and a well-established home-based business, she adds ministry and discipleship to her resume. I run in her shadow to try to keep up, to be influenced by her and to glean something tangible in my messy life.

Titus 2: 4-5 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

I can do that. My home doesn’t have to be perfected to teach the younger ones in the ways of our Lord. My heart just needs to be open and willing to the Lord’s calling. God wants me to be real and I think by admitting that I own a lot of clutter is better than to stuff it the already bursting closet with my hidden treasures of material life.

When I sit down with my daughters and their young friends in Bible study, honesty needs to pour from my lips and I need to admit that I am a real person therefore I am a sinner. I stuff and save and hoard and enjoy material things at times until they take over. But as we think about how to live a virtuous life and be self-controlled, we can find diligence through the encouraging example of our Proverbs great-relative.

As she influences me through her diligence, I can pay that influence forward to young lives that I disciple in my home. I can show virtue through transparency and conversation.

I can show virtue through transparency and conversation. Click To Tweet

I can share with the girls as I invite them into my home and life. Honesty can be my motto and rebuke will help build character when necessary. Encouragement and prayer will always be present.  As I learn from them how to have joy and fun, I can give them an example of intentional living by admitting my need for a Savior in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray that these two women from the old and new testaments of faith can both continue their legacies through my intentional living. May I lead a life that glorifies the Lord in all things.

You can find me linked up at Grace and Truth Weekly Link-Up. Please come on over and check it out.

11 thoughts on “Influence of the Proverbs 31 Woman”

  1. I absolutely love this post. I think, too often, ‘we’ have given the Proverbs 31 woman a superficial appearance when we look only at the condition of her house. There is a deeper and richer woman here – a woman who loves her Lord profoundly…and from that devotion, everything else flows. She is more about a woman who fights spiritual battles for her family when it is ‘still dark’ than it is about what time she gets out of bed. She is more about a woman who never allows the light of her love for God go out than she is about slaving away into the night. We have really missed out on who she really is. I would have loved to have been able to feature your post on Grace & Truth, but one of the guidelines for the link-up is that the post links back to the link-up. If you ever include a linkback, let me know! Thanks for sharing on Grace & Truth.

    1. Hi, Aimee, I am now linked back to Grace and Truth link-up. Thank you for the encouraging comments.

  2. This is so me! A long time ago, I decided that my kids were more important than a perfect house. Spending time teaching them to be Godly, Christians is so much more important. I think of the Proverbs 31 woman as the ideal, and something to shoot for, but not something to bring me to depression if I fail, especially at the “neatness” aspect.

    1. Every time I invite people into my home i get so flustered and then remember that hospitality is more than the perfect home. The kids will flourish despite a spotless kitchen or a messy bathroom. 🙂

  3. This completely resonates with me especially over the last year! Thank you for sharing 😊

  4. I think about places I’ve visited. The more perfect they appear, the less comfortable I am because it seems to shine a light on how imperfect I am. Being real and authentic presents opportunity for common ground and encouragement just as you are offering to your daughters and their friends. Beautiful post!

  5. Love this post. And I can so relate… I mean, I’m much more like you than the Proverbs 31 woman. She looks pretty on the pages, but when I try to be like her, I fall far short. So I rest in God’s grace. And am transparent about being a sinner in need of a Savior, because no one needs more people to look at and find themselves wanting, but if they can look at me and see Jesus, that’s good enough for me.

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