A Proverbs 31 woman I am not. I have never laid my hand to a spindle or made myself coverings of tapestry. I have never bought a field or planted a vineyard. But when I married a little over two years ago I had such high hopes for myself as a wife. I’d had good examples, I’d read books, and I just knew I was going to be good at it.

The two years Andrew I have been married have been a whirlwind of events. From major repairs in our home, job changes, moving, and so on, it just hasn’t stopped. A few weeks ago I stood looking around our new home at all the stuff that is still in boxes or misplaced, and I can honestly say I just didn’t care. I didn’t want to do laundry, or clean dishes, or hang pictures, or worry about the bookcase that needed to be moved upstairs. I was just simply worn out!

I picked up my Bible and “just happened” to open it to Proverbs 31. That was not a good chapter for me to read at that time. I was tired. Selfish. Unwilling. Exactly what a Proverbs 31 woman was not.  Then a thought came to me--how many other things in Scripture am I not? The point of my journey is to strive to become better--strive to become like Christ. Needless to say, I was humbled.

Now I am working towards becoming a Proverbs 31 woman, and in my striving I have His grace to help me.  Paul wrote, “I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running and I’m not turning back” (Philippians 3:31, The Message).

God gives me grace to become all these things. I won’t be perfect (at least, not until heaven), but we have grace in the journey of becoming. The bottom line of Proverbs 31 is being a woman who fears the Lord--and I can do that.

© 2007, Tiffini Countaway

-------

Tiffini Countaway modestly skis the mountains of Missouri on weekends.