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