For years I’ve read the “Proverb of the Day.” I’m grateful there are 31 – -one for each day of the month. And though I’ve read this treasure through many, many times (and often read it aloud to my children around the breakfast table through the years), there always seems to be something God uses to stir up my heart, let me see something a bit differently, or apply in a new way in my new season in life. That’s actually applicable to all parts of Scripture.
On May 31st, I read Proverbs 31 and…for the umpteenth time (as my WV mama always says), I was challenged and convicted, awed and humbled by this amazing woman that we often call “The Proverbs 31 Lady.” I hope she inspires you, as she does me!
As I read down through the long list of her many qualities, I prayed that I, too, could grow to be more purposeful, compassionate, industrious, wise, excellent, and creative.
I come to the end and read in verse 30:
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
I chuckle to myself, as I think, “Charm and beauty had to show up first in order to flee!”
Then I begin to allow the words “…a woman who fears the Lord…” to percolate in my mind. I ask the Lord for clarity. Perhaps it’s significant that this trait is listed last – suggesting it is the “crown” to all the others.
My impression is that the woman who fears the Lord is a woman who maintains a posture of reverence and awe towards God. She honors God with her thoughts, attitudes, motives, words, actions, and decisions.
I want that to be me. I pray that is me.
I look back over the years and I’m grateful for grace. I praise God I’m not the girl I used to be. I simultaneously look expectantly into the future and praise Him again – I’m not yet what I’m going to be either.
How good He is. How kind to love us too much to leave us where we are.
I’m grateful to revisit the wisdom of Proverbs each day – to rejoice that confusing passages become clear, that familiar passages take on new shades of meaning, and that God is ever faithful to lovingly teach me, discipline me, and draw me in day by day.
Lord, I want to be a woman who fears you!
If that is also your prayer, I invite you to join me on this journey through Proverbs this summer. Let’s read through it together day by day and invite God to reveal and renew our hearts, to shape us into women who fear Him in a biblical, eternal, and healthy way that sounds strange to the world’s definition of fear. Let’s soak up some wisdom as we read our way through Proverbs. Will you join me?
