Proverbs 31:14
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She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
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A great woman is creative and diligent. She does not settle for convenience, economy, or habit. She seeks for better dishes to serve her family and better ways to fulfill her other domestic roles. She puts forth the effort to obtain unique and excellent things for her husband and children. She is not discouraged that creativity requires extra work and time.
Our generation is addicted to convenience. This has created a lazy generation of women, who have lost the ability and drive to be creative and diligent domestically. More often than not, they are more concerned about how easy of a supper they can throw together rather than plan an imaginative and pleasant surprise for their family. This is the lesson!
Excellence marks the virtuous woman. She is not looking for shortcuts; she is looking for the best. Convenience means little to her. Superb eating and great pleasure and comfort for her family are far more important. She does not care what other women are doing; she wants to reward and honor her husband and children with special service.
Merchant ships did not travel short distances to find whatever was available or on sale; they went great distances to find unique commodities and special products that would command a premium. The ship arriving back in port with the most unusual and useful items would receive much more attention and build the reputation for that merchant.
For a woman to be like the virtuous woman, she cannot sleep in, go to bed early, take naps, talk on the phone, play every day, email all her friends, window shop, watch television, sit at Little League practice twice a week, take up hobbies, play board games with children, and waste time by other foolish means. She lives with a sense of time urgency, rather than a pursuit of ease.
A man would get fired, or never get ahead, if he worked the same way - looking to get out of as much work as possible and protect an easy daily routine. He is expected to be creative, diligent, and work with a constant sense of time urgency, every day! Today's Christian woman, piously claiming to be a "keeper at home," leads a life of ease that most other women in the history of the world could not have imagined. Life is close to a perpetual vacation for many such women.
The average woman a few generations ago could outwork any two women of this generation (probably more like ten), and she never complained that her husband did not take the family out to eat enough. She did not know what it meant to eat at McDonalds, and she had never begged, bribed, or coerced her husband into ordering pizza! You better believe she worked hard! What do you think the chief character trait of 31:10-31 is?
A virtuous woman knows she can create a more unique and exciting meal for less than going out to eat. She also knows the atmosphere at home is more conducive to family unity and marital affection. The reverence of her husband and children far outweighs the lazy desire to skip meal preparation and cleanup. And she also knows her meal is much better nutritionally than a fast food "deal."
Of course, a real meal takes longer than macaroni-and-cheese (from a box), pancakes (for supper), frozen TV dinners (from a sale), two-for-one pizza (from a newspaper clipping), and fish sticks and tater tots (from the same frozen food bin)! Meat, gravy, eggs, potatoes, and biscuits for breakfast do take a little more work than throwing out an array of boxes of sugared puffs with a gallon of milk! A wise woman will remember the simple fact that "food" from a box is worth only a fraction of the packaging and marketing!
Most men will not complain, as their wives become less creative and diligent. To criticize such things condemns her very existence and person, and it generally leads to interrupted tranquility in bed. Wicked and slothful women know how to mope around and act confused at mealtime to solicit the husband's call for take-out. So men endure a continually deteriorating routine of domestic slothfulness until they escape by death. (Or their friend, who married a virtuous woman, invites them to eat at his house!)
Christian woman, God's standard for a virtuous wife and mother is incredibly high. But remember that a woman, one of your own, looking out for her dear son, wrote it (31:1). This is the kind of woman that wise men will seek in marriage, and this is the kind of woman who will be honored and adored by her husband and children (31:28). Can you be more creative and diligent in your role as a Christian wife and mother? A woman with a pure conscience and strong fear of the Lord will consider these things soberly.
Reader, as the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, what will you give your Husband this day? Will you settle for the convenient - hurried Bible reading and a quick prayer? Or will you meditate carefully, pray fervently, praise gloriously, and obey faithfully? Do not fall into the religious rut of a form of godliness, as most women fall into the rut of the slothful American housewife. Do not be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Do diligently work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12; II Pet 1:10).
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