31, Give her credit for the fruit of her hands, and let her accomplishments praise her in the city gates.
Proverbs 31: 31 Evangelical Heritage Version
A Proverbs 31 woman is a woman who strives to serve others by careful planning and management of her household, finances, and skills as well as doing the work that needs to be done. Who wouldn’t praise a Christian woman who does smart planning and long hours of work to have happy children, a happy and respected husband, a well-run house, and a profitable business and investments?
A Lot Of Work
That all sounds exhausting though. She manages a vineyard and provides for her servant girls. She instructs her children and community and helps her husband. She makes enough cloth for her family and even enough to sell. She plans ahead enough that she doesn’t worry when emergencies happen. This might be a list of things a wealthy woman should do, but it’s still a lot of work.
Not All Work
Maybe that’s another reason for the pattern of planning and hard work verses. Hard work is needed, but so is planning. Without stopping the work to step back and see the big picture, it’s easy to make things no one wants to buy or to have too much of one thing stored up and not enough of something else. Doing something so long that your body gets tired is when you start making mistakes. If the Proverbs 31 woman worked on her cloth so long that she made a massive mess of it, her community would laugh at her family’s clothes or merchants would not buy her fabric. Taking breaks is just as important to massive artisan projects as the creative work itself. Ask any professional sculptor or painter if they can finish a good work of art in 48 hours of straight work. They may want to work straight through, but after a few hours their ability to work at their best skill slips away.
Taking breaks is necessary, but a Christian woman is never idle. How does that work? Well, I think it has to do with time management. The saying is: “Idle hands are the devil’s plaything”. If I’m bored and idle, I’ll be tempted to waste time and talents. If I’m intentionally setting time for self-care, it’s not the same thing as being idle. Maybe I’m reading a book to de-stress or doing a Bible study. Maybe I set time to take a nap or cook a favorite nap.
Some people de-stress by hanging out with family and friends. We know that her husband and her children praise the Proverbs 31 woman. That indicates that her family doesn’t feel neglected, abandoned, or ignored. She obviously took time from her work and investing to maintain a happy relationship with her family.
Celebrate At The End
I find it interesting that this section about the perfect wife doesn’t start out with praises. It hooks the queen’s son by saying a good wife is worth a lot, but the praises only come after all her hard work and planning is done. We can remember that and keep in mind that work must come before celebrating. No where in this section of Proverbs does it talk about her bragging about things she plans to do, but hasn’t finished. It talks about her finishing the work and other people praising her. Do you know how awesome it feels for other people to compliment you, even when you aren’t around?
