The Good Wife (Pt 3)

^{Proverbs 31:16-18}

¹⁶ She inspects a field and buys it.
With money she earned, she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She does her work with energy,
and her arms are strong.
¹⁸ She knows that what she makes is good.
Her lamp burns late into the night.

 

In todays article we will be working on Vs's 16-18 where we are reminded that the good wife is never idle, she is researches and makes educated purchases that are beneficial to her family and makes further purchases with the earnings she makes from her original purchase. Not all of us hace the finance to buy a field or something else that can be used to produce further income, However, we can buy a sewing machine and make clothes for our family and sell the extras/ crafts or we could do the same with cooking, cook in bulk and sell items at stalls or give meals to older people/ less financial families in your congregation. God always blesses us when we bless others.

It is easy to get caught in a rut when you are not leaving the house each day and things can quite easily become a bore and we just do things we need to to get buy, but God wants his women to do things with all their heart and soul, not just to do the things we need because we have to but to do them with a smile on our faces to the best of our ability. When I feel as though I am in a rut and just 'getting through' the day, I think to myself "I am cleaning this bedroom in God's house", "This is one of the toilets that God and the best angels use" and "I am making this meal to serve at God's Sunday lunch" so I take my time and do the best I can and it helps make even the most mundane jobs a heaven sent task.

This also goes with verse 18, she knows what she makes is good and her lamp burns late into the night. This verse reminds us that we know we are good at what we are do, we have confidence in ourselves and the drive to continue doing them well and to keep working on them until they are all done.

We must also remember though that we should have not just a Martha heart that is always busy and getting things done for everyone else but a Mary heart that remembers to stop and listen and learn from our Father and to enjoy our family.

 

Father,

Thankyou for giving us confidence in our tasks to keep going day after day even when they seem mundane. I ask that you be in our daily tasks that we can do them the best that we can as if we are doing them in your house. Help us to remember to make time for you in our everyday that we can learn to be better wives and women for the extension of your kingdom.

Amen

The Good Wife (Pt 2)

^{Proverbs 31:13-15}

¹³ She looks for wool and flax
and likes to work with her hands.
¹⁴ She is like a trader’s ship,
bringing food from far away.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark
and prepares food for her family
and feeds her servant girls.

 

The lessons and/ or reminders from todays verses of Proverbs 31 tells of how the Good Wife does all that she can to provide the best for her family, choosing and or making appropriate clothing for her family. In biblical times women used to make the clothes for their families, and as I said in my last post, I CANNOT sew! I can re-attatch buttons and let a hem down, I could possible hand sew some ribbon onto and outfit to dress it up a little but it probably would not look very appealing or stay there for very long, but that doesnt mean that I cannot use wisdom to pick clothes for my family that are appropriate for them to wear, keeping them warm in winter, and cool in summer, room to grow for the children so they last more then a month before they are pulling and stretching at them to make them fit and most importantly, covers what needs to be coverd, there is a point where fashion needs to meet self respect and it is a hard task to find outfits that do so at the moment. Even though our children may only be young, what they wear now and what they grow to be comphortable in is what they will wear when they are older or even outfits and fashions more daring which show even less self-respect for themselves.

 

The Good wife is the main provider for the family, even though in most cases, income is brought in by both the husband and wife if not one or the other it is generally speaking that it is the wife who will do the grocery shopping, meal planning, lunch packing and bill paying. This also means that she is responsible for the quality of food and amount of intake that her family consumes. Sometimes it is hard to find quality fruit and vegetables at the supermarket for affordable prices so a second trip to the green grocer or fruit barn might be in order to help your family be the healthiest and the best they can be as the old saying goes "You only get out what you put in" quality fruit and vegetables doesnt have to cost a fortune and healthy meals for a family can be made on a small budget with a bit of shopping around and reserching. (After this blog I will also post some additional money saving tips that we work with in our houshold to help the dollar stretch a little further)

 

The third verse we will be covering today is  "she gets up while its still dark and prepares food for her family and feeds her servant girls". Obviosly most of us dont have servent girls but we can adapt this to packing lunches and feeding the pets. A few good habits to get into for the good wife is to be prepared, a little thinking ahead can go a long way in a busy household. such things as:

• Take meat for the next day's dinner out the night before to start the thoring process after dinner but you MUST (especially in sunny QLD) remember to put in back in the fridge before heading to bed for the evening. I find if I put the meat in a bowl and my phone/ housekeys beside the dish when I collect them to turn in for the night I remember to put the meat back in the fridge so that you dont wake to off meat in the morning and a waste of valuable food.
• Getting the family involved in making their own lunches for the next day as soon as they come in the door can become apart of your homework schedule also, learning about healthy choices and food preparation as well as independance are all excellent life skills that the good wife need to be passing onto her family. (also if you prepare lunches the same time as their afternoon snack its one less mess to clean up and more time to do other things)
• Awake early in the mornings to begin your day with a shower and daily hygiene before the children wake, when you are already 1/2 ready to face the day when your family start getting up in the mornings you are already a step ahead and 15-20 minutes less sleep is probably not going to make much of a difference to your sleep but will make a world of difference to your day.
•  Prepare at least one thing for dinner before you leave the house in the morning. this can be as simple as soaking the soup beans, or cutting the vegetable up and putting them in a sealed container in the fridge with cold water so they just have to be rinsed and thrown in the pot/ oven when its time, or marinating/ seasoning the meat for the evening meal (this will increase the flavour also

 

All in all from todays verses we have learnt that the good wife is one of the key providers for her family and is responsible for many things in her household we are valuable women, crucial to the everyday running of our homes we are important and even though we may not all have an occupation, our Job is to prepare for our family with the earthly things they require through God's supreme providence. I really hope that you have learnt something new from this article feel free to add any other hints and tips or ideas to share the blessing even further.

 

 

Heavenly Father,

Thankyou for continuing to prepare me for being a Good wife and the women you created us to be. I pray that your Holy Spirit will continue to live in our hearts and guide us to be all that we can be in your name. I thank you for the other good wives in our lives that inspire us and help us to prepare for marriage and being wonderful wives to our husbands. Please help us to understand that we are not all perfect and we aren't going to be a good wife overnight and to be patient with ourselves and keep pressing into you and your bible as you have all the answers of our trials and troubles and the reasons behind them.  We love you lord!

Amen

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Good Wife

Check out Proverbs 31:10-31

(too much to write out )

In the pending of the upcoming new year and my wedding in April, I have begun re-studying Proverbs 31 to be an outline of my "new years resolution" and a pledge for myself to God and my H2B (Husband to be) that by the time the wedding comes around, at least some of these Attributes should (hopefully) be second nature to me. the next couple days I will be blogging on the importance and life applications of a couple verses at a time. In this Blog we will be looking at the first 3 verses (PROV 31:10-12)

 

"It is hard to find a good wife, because she is worth more then rubies" (10)

 

A wife who's heart is fully in line with God is what Godly men should be aiming for and that is what women should be aiming to be and that is a hard task to achieve and it takes a long time to achieve it, therefor it can be considered rare and highly valuable. The Wife that is described in these Verses has her heart fully in line with God and her family, and this is what we should be aiming to achieve, not only for those who are married, or like me pending a marriage but for those that who have not yet found their shining knight. This is one of those situations where I think the saying applies "If you build it they will come" so if you start practicing these skills in your own life for yourself and your birth family, when your heart is ready, God will send your Knight and your heart will be ready to serve and honor him and your heavenly father.

 

"Her husband trusts her completely. With her, he has everything he needs". (11)

 

Trust, can be a complex situation to grasp, It is not just trusting that his wife is being monogamous or is treating their children right. Trust in a marriage covers all of these things and right down to preparing fortified food (hidding vegetables/ fruits within meals even though you know he doesn't like them without request/ permission) This is one I really struggle with, I am good with all the 'big' things but my fiance doesn't eat vegetables but I'm a bit of a vegieholic so cooking meals for him is a bit of a challenge and I am often tempted to grate up my favourite veggies and cook them in so that he doesnt know they are there and I have in the past especially when he is coming down with a cold or has hurt himself and his body needs more nutrients then what roast and chipped potato can provide. But I know this is wrong, and I am going to work on this, with Gods help I will have the right words to encourage him to look after himself without me having to trick him into it. With her, he has everything he needs means that, It is the wifes Job to supply/provide/ give her husband all that he requires so that he is not tempted to go else where for it. (On a side note, if your husband is silly enough to wonder, I'm not saying its your fault)

 

"She does him good not harm for as long as she lives" (12)

 

 

The Good wife, does not lead her husband into temptation nor does she put him down. In fact it is the role of a Good wife to raise her husband up and encourage him to be the best that he can be and be respected in society and in their congregation. Assisting where she can so that he can be all that God wants him to be. In saying this, A Good Husband should also do the same for his wife. We are not all natural born cooks, or gardeners or sewers and though most of these skills can be learnt, it doesnt mean that you have to be the best at it (I cant sew to save my life and I have a black thumb for everything but weeds) But the husband should not be putting her down because of this, a good husband should, like the wife, be raising his partner up, if she cant cook - encourage her to spend time with women who can, listening and observing is much easier then reading thousands of cook books or watching videos on you tube of how to glaze a ham.

 

In all I believe that these are all old time lessons that are essential to the modern wife aswell and I invite you all to come on a journey with me over the next 10 days as I prepare for the new year and wedding and applying them to our lives together. Please feel free to comment and add suggestions and more life applications of how we can strive to be better women of God and Good wives to our husbands.

 

 

Father,

when you created women, you had wonderful plans in mind for us to be amazing women in tune with your heart and caring providers for our families and communities. We are aware that we can not achieve this in our strength alone and ask for you to come into our hearts and guide us to be all that you created us to be. Today we thank you for creating us and giving us these verses to help guide us to become who you want us to be and ask that you today will help us be valuable to our husbands, be trustworthy providers and do good for our husbands and/ or future husbands. We love you Lord and know that we cannot achieve this without you and thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to earth so that we can achieve this.

Amen.

A Christmas Focus

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas day and are enjoying a relaxing Boxing Day to get over the rush. The sales are soon to start here in Australia so it will be a quick blog this morning and I will try and get back tonight, But I really wanted to share with everyone the message from our childrens segment in our Christmas Day Service yesterday.

 

The officers had a nativity scene set out on the Alter and and asked the children what they recieved for Christmas, as each child told the congregation what they had opened up that morning the female officer placed a christmas box infront of the nativity scene till all the children had informed us of their gifts. Then the children were asked what happened to baby Jesus. The aim of the message was that at Christmas we need to make sure we dont bury or forget about baby Jesus under all the presents but that the presents are a reminder of God's gift to us, Baby Jesus.

 

I pray that you all take time to Remember Baby Jesus every day of your life and that you will take him with you in all you do think and say with the Holy Spirits help.

 

Father God, I thank you for sending your son to live with us and be the king of our hearts and souls that we can be saved through him. Please Send your holy spirit into my heart that I may be able to focus fully on you in all I do everyday but most importantly on the day we celebrate his birth.

Amen.

The Lord will fight for you

But moses answered,"Dont be afraid! Stand still and you will see the Lord save you today. You will never see these egyptians again after today. You only need to remain calm and the Lord will fight for you - Exodus 14:13-14

 

In everyone of our lives, we all come into circumstances where we will need to be saved or protected. Although we do not always look into the right place for it, when we are children, our protection comes from our parents generally speaking, or from a police officer, teacher or adult friend, as teenagers, our protection comes from being with friends a large variety of people or circumstances. I know for one I find protection in hiding, if things get tough, you will generally find me closing off, in my room, texting etc It is quite frequent that I forget the person that I should turn to first for my protection, the Lord.

 

God has an awesome track record of protecting his people, throughout the bible and throughout the rest of history there is thousands and thousands of everyday miracles of protection and we know about these situations they are everywhere, everyday miracles for which people has asked God to intervene and God to protect them.

 

In the holiday season, people who are usually quite relaxed and chilled out even feel a bit of the stress of the materialistic Christmas and tensions rise. I pray that we will all have the courage to be still and let God intervine in our lives and hearts and let him do his work.

 

 

Prayer:

 



Father God,

Thankyou for being the almighty God who saved his people from his enemies since the begining. I pray that I will have the courage to let my gaurd down so that you can intervene in my life this holiday season and into the new year, that I may be able to trust in you for my protection from the world, others and myself. You are the almighty protector and deliverer.

Amen

Another plain Mary

The angel said to her, “don’t be afraid, Mary; God has shown you his grace. Listen you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus..” – Luke 1:30-31 (NCV)

 

Mary was a young woman (probably in her early mid teens as Jewish girls married between 12- 16 years of age at that time, Very young I know in today’s standards) Nothing out of the ordinary, she was betrothed to Mary Joseph a carpenter, another average trade. Yet... GOD PICKED HER!!! I think this is such an amazing thing to think about for young women (and guys) as a bit of an extra awesome fact that comes along with Christmas. God didn’t pick a royal princess or the sports captain or even the girl that has 10 million friends on facebook. He picked a girl that most people would have considered to be “plain Jane” or in this case plain Mary, because she was the one that found favour with the Lord. I, like most girls, sometimes get caught up in the world, trying to keep up with the latest trends, the brand names, the shoes, the make-up, the everything, which is fine if you are doing it for you. These earthly things weren’t around in the time of Jesus their rank in society could have been based on a number of things, the amount of money they had to spend on perfume, the decoration on their pots, how awesome their unleavened bread tasted.  But these still wouldn’t have pleased God if girls (or guys) were competing for this ‘status’. God picked Mary because of her devotion and faith in him. It would have been a really scary time for both Mary and Joseph, people could have been gossiping behind their backs for having ‘relations’ outside of marriage, being teenagers (Mary at least) and raising a baby, and not just any baby, but THE baby. In my 20’s I couldn’t imagine raising a baby the right way 100% of the time let alone being 5 years younger when I was in high school and caring for a baby let alone cooking and cleaning and caring for a family. But God knew what he was doing. He always does, Mary had a relationship with the Lord that could get her through everything, remember Jesus is still Human so I imagine he would of had all the issues babies have, really pooey nappies, teething pain, bumps and bruises learning to walk, and don’t forget his little Journey to the temple without telling his earthly parents where he was going. It would have taken a very special relationship with God for Mary to bring up Jesus in just the right way.  And I am so thankful that she did. I think this Christmas as well as being happy and excited for the birth of the Lord Jesus, we should also be thankful for his Mother, for saying yes, and let her be our inspiration to dig deeper into the word and our relationship with Christ so that when our time comes, we can say YES, in Jesus name to whatever our callings may be.

Prayer

Father God,

thankyou for sending your son to earth so many years ago that all mankind may have the chance to be saved. I thank you for choosing a plain Jane to be Jesus’ earthly mother that we might learn from her dedication and faith in you so that when it is time for our callings to be revealed that in your strength we can say YES as Mary did and go forth to carryout our calling in your name. You are an almighty God and I love you.
AMEN

Ephesians 4:23-24

But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, to become a new person.  That new person is made to be like God  - made to be truly good and holy. - Ephesians 4:23-24 (NCV)

This is one of my absolute favourite scriptures though it is probably one of the hardest I have found to live up to also.  The Apostle Paul, the author of the book of Ephesians, is talking about becoming new in your hearts as a new person when you have accepted Jesus as your savior. This verse was written in a letter to the Ephesians (and all people in the future nations - YOU AND ME) about the letting go of who we were before we met Jesus because it no longer matters all your mistakes, negative thoughts, the hurt and pain has all been washed away and taken care of aslong as we believe in Jesus. The person we become once we have handed over all the gross and annoying things from our old lives is then changed and challenged to be like God, truly good and holy.  Sounds like a bit of a challenge doesn't it? It is a challenge, its hard work at times to be a christian, I've been one for 15 years and at times, I will admit, I have looked back when the road gets windy and steap or the company I keep brings me to a fork in the road or even a multi lane round about that I get stuck on going round and round and round because the world is a bit to crazy to make any decisions so I just stick to a lane and stay there until I remember and have the strength to hand the wheel back over to God who can lead me to the exit he has chosen for me. But that there is the key, God has big plans for our lives, and there is 30,442 verses in the bible to challenge you and help you to grow to be like God and truly good and holy through the help of Jesus and his Holy Spirit, all you have to do is ask him to take back the wheel and keep digging into the Bible for what God has to tell you.

 

Prayer:

 

Father God,

Thankyou for sending your Son to earth that we may be able to have a personal relationship with Him and know about you through Him. I pray that you will send your Holy Spirit into my heart that it may guide me to be the new person you created and saved me to be that I may become like you, made to be truly good and holy. May you fill me with the strength and wisdom to hand over the wheel in this crazy round about of my life so that you can take control and lead me in the ways you have planned for me.

AMEN