Introduction to Proverbs 31

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ’Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”
Proverbs 31:10-31

When I started 2011, I had big plans to be intentional and to finish many of the tasks on my 101 in 1001 list. I had big dreams. It’s now almost October, my deadline for the 101 in 1001 was a couple weeks ago, and I barely have an interest in completing some of the remaining tasks. Life is much different than it was 1001 days ago. I am now a mother, I have a new job, I’ve grown and experienced things that have led me to realize that priorities are an important part of life. Guitar Hero (#98) just doesn’t make the cut on my list of current priorities. But these are still things that I think would be neat to accomplish at some point, so my list of 101 things is now transitioning into more of a bucket list. Some day I hope to accomplish all of these things.

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ve seen me mention my interest in Proverbs 31 a few times (here, here, and here). Ever since I participated in my small group study on Proverbs 31, I have been trying to work toward becoming a modern day wife of Noble character. I haven’t really created much of a plan to do this, I’ve just had a general idea of what I wanted to focus on and tried to run with it. If I’ve learned anything from reading self-improvement authors, it’s that an idea without goals and a plan is pretty useless. Thinking about managing our finances and our activities and planning our meals doesn’t do a whole lot to actually improve those situations. I must develop goals and a plan to see success and putting those goals and plans in writing is step one on the journey to a better self.

I now present you with my goals and plans to become a Proverbs 31 woman. My hope is that posting this list and various details and updates in the coming weeks and months might inspire other women (and maybe even men) to put into writing the plans and goals you have to become a better you. To be the best wife, mother, and woman that God created you to be. And not just to write it out, but to actually follow through on your plans and watch God move in your life. My other hope is that posting this on the world wide web will keep me a little more accountable to myself to actually follow through and take my own advice.

When you read Proverbs 31, you may envision some completely different goals than I do. I think that’s ok. Your reality isn’t the same as mine (you may have 7 kids or none at all). You also have completely different strengths and weaknesses than I do (like, you might actually know how to keep a clean house). Each verse in Proverbs 31 can speak to each of us in completely different ways. Verse 23 (“Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land”) might lead you to a place of deeper respect and support for your husband and his personal and professional endeavors. Verse 26 (“She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue”) might be nudging you to watch your language and consider the integrity of your words.

My prayer is that my list inspires you to consider the things that you can do to improve your character. Your character, your actions are what the world sees as your example of Jesus Christ. Most of the goals on my list are pretty focused on my family and aren’t going to hugely impact the rest of the world. I think that an outward focus to change the world is important, but for me, that starts in my own home. My first priority in this life is God, my second priority is my husband, my third priority is Jordynn. I think my list highlights that these are my priorities. At some point, my hope is to expand these goals to include more of the rest of the world, but right now I think I have enough to focus on in my own home.

Over the coming days (weeks, months?) I’ll be breaking down each of these items and explaining my purpose and ideas in more detail. I’ll also be using this blog to update my successes (and struggles?) in each of these areas. I’m planning to be transparent, but yet discreet enough to hopefully keep our personal business personal.

Another thing I want to point out about my list of goals and plans is that I realize that the goals aren’t necessarily well-defined goals. If you’ve taken any kind of business training on goals, you probably have heard something along the lines of the importance of S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relavant, timely). While I find great value in these types of goals, I find that the plan is often more important than having detailed goals. You can have the best goals and vision in the world, but if you don’t have a plan for how to make those goals a reality, you’re never going to get anywhere. In sales, you can focus all day long on your goal to sell five products, but if you don’t have a plan to talk to people, listen to their needs, sell them on your products, and close the deal, you will never sell those five products (unless you stumble on some really good luck). There are specific steps that must be taken to achieve each goal and that is my area of focus in this endeavor. For example, serving my family well-balanced meals is important, but I don’t want to hold myself to a specific number of meals each month that must be eaten at home. My usual goal would be all of them, but realistically I know that there will be frozen pizza nights, fast food lunches, and meals out on Fridays or Sundays. I’m perfectly fine with this as we need these types of freebie days, but in the main, I want my focus to be on meals that I cook, served at the dinner table in our own home. That is why I have come up with actual steps to take (like making a list of meal ideas, creating a meal plan, etc) that will help me to achieve the overall goal. Make sense?

I’m excited to see where this takes me. Feel free to comment on my list (just try to keep it nice). This whole thing is a work in progress and I hope you’ll join me on this journey. Keep checking back for updates and feel free to bug me if I’m slacking, that is kind of the point of posting this for all to see.

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