Breathing Comes A Little Easier Now, Doesn't It?

There it is.  That's my secret place for now.  The place where I sneak away to read, study, praise Him, listen.  It's where I bring my notebook, Bible, computer, the charger ('cause I never know how long I'll be!), and my pitiful little citronella plant that keep the flies and bugs away. (I know, I really should re-pot the poor thing.  The P31 woman would already have done that ;)  This is the place where I can be still from life and hear for a moment. 

It's also the place where I learned that many of you are much more MATURE than me, and I don't mean mature in years, either! 

How did I find out you were much more mature than me?  I took a peek at the poll results to see what you were saying so far.  Your responses are a little more dignified than mine would have been not too long ago.  Ahem.....

We've all gotta start somewhere, right?

Never mind the results, let's unfold a little about the Proverbs 31 woman.

Last time I included a long list of things about the Proverbs 31 woman, a list that seems completely impossible, right?  I mean, a merchant ship?  Really? 

When I consider the list, it's almost hard to breathe.

To understand Proverbs 31, we have to understand a few other things.  The book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon, who is considered to be the wisest man who ever lived.  The whole book is about wisdom and letting wisdom guide the choices we make in life.  Keeping that in mind, it helps to know that Proverbs 31: 10-31, the portion describing the Proverbs 31 Woman, is written in an acrostic. 

Remember what an acrostic is?  Here's a few you would be familiar with:

Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

Pray
Until
Something
Happens

Fully
Rely
On
God

God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense

What
Would
Jesus
Do?

Acrostics help us remember things, and the Proverbs 31 woman wasn't a "particular" woman.  This was an acrostic describing characteristics of an excellent woman.  Each verse describing her started with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Think of it as "The ABC's of a Godly Woman".  It was an ideal, not an exact.   For a very long time, I thought the Proverbs 31 woman was a real person being described, someone we were supposed to try to model, and if I couldn't do it, I was a failure.

That's not true, friend.  That's a lie the enemy wants us to believe so that we remain discouraged and defeated, and to try keep us a little irritated with God.  

She's not a person, she's an idea.  In studying, it was pointed out that the intention of putting all of these qualities together was to show that a truly godly woman's character runs the full range of her being.  She is who she is all the time.

Breathing comes a little easier now, doesn't it? 

There is one more very important nugget of information about the Proverbs 31 woman.  We have to back up to the very beginning of Proverbs 31 to find it.

The words of King Lemuel, the oracle which his mother taught him.
Proverbs 31:1

Proverbs 31 is advice a mother gave to her son. It's like he's saying, "This is what my momma always told me...." His mother knew the importance of choosing a godly wife, so she gave him an acrostic to remember and go by.  What a wise mother! Maybe she was an example of a Proverbs 31 woman.....

Breathing comes even a little easier now, doesn't it?

With those thoughts in mind, let's take another vote.

These were the words of King Lemuel taught to him by his mother.  It's interesting what can be said about King Lemuel.  Guess who many scholars say King Lemuel was?

King Solomon

His mother was Bathsheba.  Her life had taught her a few things, and she wanted to use the wisdom she had gained to teach her son. 

I think what we have learned today helps us see that maybe becoming a Proverbs 31 woman isn't so unattainable.

I leave you with a new acrostic I stumbled upon that seems fitting for where we are right now.

Believe
Righteousness
Eventually
Arrives
To
Handle
Everything

Just Breathe, my friend.  You can be a Proverbs 31 Woman.

XOXO,
Amy