The Virtuous Wife-Lesson Seven

"Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it." Psalm 119:35

Good morning, Ladies. Hope you had a nice weekend....let's pray....

Dear Lord, we come here today to thank You for Your precepts. We ask that today You have mercy upon us as wives, mothers, and grandmothers and help us to teach Your precepts to our children and grandchildren.

For your precepts are pure. Your commandments are right. Lord, make us wiser than our enemy for he is always with us. Give us understanding to discern right from wrong in our actions and words. Make Your precepts our meditation day and night. Cause us to teach them to our children when we wake up to when we sleep.

Forgive us our sins, for we have sinned against You. Blot out our transgressions, purge our sins, and cleanse us this day through Your word. How sweet are Your words to my taste, they are sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Be our light as we lead our children in Your instruction, Father. We live to please You.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Today's passage" Prov. 31:14 "She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar."

Do you like to cook? I am learning more and more about it and find it fun, but it does cost alot of money at times to make a really good meal.

Do you like to try new recipes? I enjoy watching the Food Network to try and learn a new recipe.

Did your mother or grandmother leave with you many family recipes that have been in your family for generations?

If so, you are blessed. I recently watched Paula Dean cook several family recipes on her TV show and she shared about her grandmother and mother. As she ate the meals she prepared, tears filled her eyes because the food took her back to her youth. I had tears in my eyes too, but for different reasons........

My grandmothers left his world without leaving behind any recipes for me or my sister. My mom also has never given me any recipes she may have received. How sad that all those family meals and traditions are gone!

The Virtuous Wife obviously made it her quest to go and find quality foods for her family. She obviously was creative in her endeavors. She cared about what she was putting before her family. I find this encouraging.

Let's take a look at two women in Scripture who served the Lord by opening their homes to Him and others:

Please read:

Luke 10:38-42

Here we find Martha who "welcomed Him (Jesus) into her house." How wonderful that this story follows Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan who helped the wounded man who fell among thieves by having compassion upon him. Here we see Martha and her sister, Mary, also having compassion on The Man who would soon fall among thieves as well....

How did the two women serve the Lord?

Was one's service greater than the other?

How do you serve the Lord?

Please read:

Luke 10:41-42

It is easy to get bogged down with "service" to the Lord, but Jesus reminds us that we are to concentrate more on spiritual service to Him (like worship) than the more physical service to Him. One is eternal and the other is temporal.

Psalm 27:4

Psalm 26:8

Psalm 65:4

We are blessed when we seek to dwell with the Lord.

Please read:

Luke 2:36-38

How was Anna called by the Lord?

What was her service to Him?

Was her service to the Lord temporal or eternal?

Whom did she seek?

Please read:

John 6:27

Who or what are we to labor for?

Do you think the Virtuous Wife understood this?

She strove to bring good things, good food, to her family. She put their needs ahead of her own. I am sure "bringing food from afar" was not an easy thing to do back then. Especially when she had a home and children to care for....yet she did this.

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Life Application

We are to make sure our service to our family is for spiritual gain and not for personal gain.

Please read:

Deut. 6:6-7

We are instructed to teach our children the Lord's laws. We can do this even when we are serving the Lord through housework, cooking, and just reading them out loud.

I like watching Paula Dean because her recipes are wonderful. She has written a memoir about how she went from rags to riches. I read an excerpt from the book and was saddened by one passage.

In the passage she writes about how she and her sons were poor, but because she used her cooking skills and family recipes, they began to see hope. She then goes on the say that food was their "salvation."

Now, I have not read the rest of the book, so I do not know if she does give thanks to the Lord for His salvation or not, though she claims to be a Christian. But it saddened me that she was giving credit for their survival to food, material things that are perishable.

How tragic indeed.

Please read:

Matt 6:19

John 4:14

Acts 2:22

Now read John 6:27-35.....

Make sure our labor is for the Lord and not merely for earthly gain.....like:

Martha Stewart. She may be successful in business, but in life she is not. She is divorced. Her husband left her for her assistant. She has one child because she couldn't be "bothered" with anymore children. She had a hysterectomy to ensure this. She went to prison for insider trading. How successful is she, really?

Rachel Ray. She has 4, that's right, FOUR television shows right now, a magazine, and several books. She is a newlywed and is already having marriage problems. She has admitted not wanting to have children because she felt it would be "selffish" to bring a child into her hectic life. How successful is she, really?

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Do you know a newlywed couple? Share a family recipe and story with the wife.

How did you learn to cook? Who taught you?

I learned from my mother, but because she worked full time she didn't have much time to really teach me. She acknowledged this to me recently. I was grateful that she recognized this. How sad that she worked all those years and yet has nothing to show for it. I am blessed that I can stay home with my son. Not all women are able to do this.

Where do you shop and why?

Share a recipe with us if you want!

I have worked outside the home full time and have also stayed home with my son full time. I prefer to work outside the home part time because being in the house all day drives me nuts! But I am eternally grateful to the women who did stay home and provided day care to my son so I could work part time. God bless these women!

I am also grateful to the women who were called to work outside of the home full time: doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. I recently had to have an ultrasound (I have them annually due to fibroids...) and I was so very glad that it was a woman technician. I have never had a male gynecologist. I am very thankful to the women who do work full time.

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Take time out of your day today to reflect on what Prov. 31:14 means to you.

Until next time........

"Here God's law requires parents, first of all, to take His law into their own hearts, and second, to talk of His law day and night, day-in and day-out, both inside and outside the home to their sons and daughters.

in other words, godly parents are to teach and talk of the things of the Lord to their children throughout each and every day and act of life...."

-Elizabeth George (A Woman of High Calling, 2001, p.160)

Blessings,

Ruth