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by Gina L. from Virtuous Daughters, December 2018/January 2019~Volume 18, Number 5 "Panning for Gold" Proverbs 31 Study Series Part 22 ~Proverbs 31:31~ I have never been a great gardener. It is partly because I don't have a natural knack for it and mostly because I rarely take the time to actually plant anything. You don't reap if you don't sow! One year though I read a book on wide raised-bed gardening, and it had great pictures and compelling text and inspired me to try. Could a rookie grow produce like that bountiful harvest pictured in the book? Judging from what that plot of ground in our backyard had previously yielded, one would have had many doubts.
by Gina L. from Virtuous Daughters, April/May 2018~Volume 18, Number 1 "Panning for Gold" Proverbs 31 Study Series Part 18 ~Proverbs 31:27~ The other night we were having a discussion about something our pastor mentioned recently. It was quite shocking. He was talking about people being thirsty for the Lord and got into a topic about paying attention in church. It turns out he was once at a church where--and this is a true story, believe it or not--a lady got out her nail clippers during church and began to clip not her fingernails, but actually her toenails during the service! Can you imagine that? It got our family later into a discussion about how hard it must be to preach when people don't even look at you and are noticeably distracted. It plays out this way: the pastor is preaching about God's wonderful grace and he looks out and people are checking their phones and their watches, looking around the room, putting on lip balm, fumbling for a piece of gum or a mint in their purses, yawning, or even reading the commentary notes in their Bibles from a passage he isn't even preaching on. I think you can often tell a lot by watching where a person is looking, where they fix their eyes, and not just in a church setting, but in life in general. Now obviously, one can pretend to look somewhere with their eyes while their heart is looking somewhere altogether different, but God sees where we look with both our heart and our eyes and it is a telling picture.
Today there are many places that women can look. The world has a large assortment of dazzling ornaments ready to grab the eye. Some look on social media with an almost religious devotion of time, checking it incessantly as if a treasure was soon to be revealed there. Others look to fashion and clothing and clearance sales for items they need about as much as a dolphin needs a new set of flippers. (Unfortunately, I have bought my share of clearance “flippers”!) Still others look to entertaining books, music, TV, movies, decorating websites, etc. Some are just constantly looking at their phones and texting friends far and near to exchange the latest news....a sort of modern way to go “from house to house.” Yes, you can be in your own house physically, but out of it mentally and emotionally. Other women are not so “narrow minded,” and they are looking to the world's wisdom, desiring to acquire the knowledge to understand lofty philosophies and “new” ideas, ever learning but never knowing truth. Some well-meaning women look for fulfilling experiences to show their great devotion, trying to get behind every cause and join every group, ever looking outward. But a great majority of women, in reality, are looking inward—at themselves—at their opportunities, their accomplishments, their ideas, their feelings, even their own holiness or lack of it. But where do we find the Virtuous Woman looking? She is shown rejecting idleness and self-absorption and looking instead to the needs of her family. by Gina L. from Virtuous Daughters, June/July 2017~Volume 17, Number 2 "Panning for Gold" Proverbs 31 Study Series Part 14 ~Proverbs 31:23~ This week we took a field trip to an aquarium to observe the marvelous fish God created. In a large tank, I oohed and ahhed at many beautifully colored exotic fish and at the sharks, sting rays, and the giant turtle. The expert biologist who was answering questions came around to talk to us. She told us her favorite fish was this tiny little three inch plain looking fish. I was shocked at first. Then she told us why. It turns out that little fish was loved by all in the tank because he would clean all the parasites off of the other fish and groom them. He was such a good little helper that he would even swim in and out of their gills, cleaning and making the fish look good and stay healthy all over. While I can’t even remember the name of the plain little fish, I certainly remember how good he made the others in the tank look. Like the biologist, I decided that I liked that plain little fish too and would like to be like him, helping others and making them better by his presence. That plain little fish reminds me of the Virtuous Woman.
As we have peered into the life of the Virtuous Woman in Proverbs 31, we have observed her many noble character qualities mentioned and have sought to emulate them. Now, however, as we come to verse 23, we find a stark change--the woman’s husband’s position and place are emphasized rather than hers. Proverbs 31:23 says, “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.” by Tiffany S. from Virtuous Daughters, August 2016~Volume 16, Number 5 When I was a little girl, I had a big imagination. Being the first-born, I was usually successful in convincing my younger brother to join me in make-believe games. One of our favorites was “Grown Up Today,” where we pretended to be grown and married with families of our own. Not content to settle for mediocre, we established a church in the forest, organized a sophisticated home school support group, and founded a delicious restaurant in our family kitchen. Every day we were living our picture-perfect future, and it was exhilarating. (Justin had twenty children. I only had twelve, but that was quite understandable, since my dozen consisted of six sets of twins.) One of our creative ideas was to compile a home school directory complete with family names and children’s birthdays. When I find these childhood memories in boxes in the attic, I laugh...how much fun we had together! But sometimes I sigh...this home school directory shows that my oldest children were born three years ago! (And at the time when I’d figured those dates, that was a “safe” estimation!)
Here I am, hardly able to believe that I, the girl who always considered late twenties “sooo old to be unmarried,” have actually joined the club. And yet I can honestly say as I look back on the past years, I wouldn’t trade any of them. Each day I rest confidently that I am in the center of God’s will for my life and nothing can be sweeter than that assurance. I still hope and pray fervently that the Lord will provide marriage and motherhood in His timing...I still prepare for that and look forward to it very much! And yet, my ultimate desire is to live the life He has ordained for me. It is only there that I have true joy, fulfillment, and sustenance. Proverbs 28:6 says, “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.” I have personalized this in my journal: “Better to be single and within God’s will than married but unfaithful to my Lord.” (Though that isn’t to say marriage is the “rich life” and singleness “is poverty”! :) ) As single girls waiting on the Lord, there are moments when we struggle...but ultimately, we could not be more fulfilled anywhere else, if this is what God has ordained for us right now. |
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Encouraging Young Ladies to Grow in the Lord Jesus Christ
"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."~Proverbs 31:29
"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."~Proverbs 31:29