Proverbs 31-Godly Woman

If you would take a look with me at the example used all the time of a Godly woman in Proverbs 31:10-31. Up until this past year I used to think I failed miserably at trying to live up to this “perfect” woman; however someone had me recently look at these verses again, through a new perspective. While I am still nowhere near perfect I do feel better about being a working mom. If you look at these verses this lady was a working mom, whether she took her children with her not is not known, but she did conduct business outside the home. In verse 16 it says that she bought fields, planted vineyards, and used her earnings. In verse 18, it says that she saw to it that her profits were good. She made money for her family. The Proverbs 31 woman also had servants! Can you believe that? You know what that means, she didn’t do everything in her house with her own hands, and she hired servants to help out. This lady was a good manager of her household, which means she also knew when to delegate tasks. So if I want to hire someone to clean up a brush pile, or take down a tree, or even clean my house, then it is okay…….but as managers we must keep in perspective the finances of our house. If we don’t have the money to hire someone to help then we need to either figure out a bartering system or do the chores ourselves.
As I read Proverbs 31, I think that if we strive to be the woman whose husband can trust and praise her, whose children call her blessed and who fears the Lord, then all these things will fall into place, our household and our work. I know, for one, that I love to hear my husband say good things about me, sometimes I don’t hear it personally but other people will tell me, Jason was bragging about how much money you saved at the grocery store the other day, or Jason said how wonderful you did this or that…….I know then that he does appreciate the things I do around the house and that I must be doing pretty good or he wouldn’t be “singing my praises”. I’m not perfect, I’m sure there again Jason would probably be the first to tell you that, but I do try very hard to manage my household and my work.
Ultimately every mom is a working mom, whether you have a job outside the home or not. I pray that one day the mommy war will end and we will encourage each other in our day to day lives and in the decisions we make for our families. As a working mom I have heard much criticism, such as I must not really care for my child because I work full-time, or that I must miss a lot because I work full-time. I do miss my son a lot, but I also know that I work because I care about him. I am working to provide for his needs.

Let's hear it for the Working Mommas!

I hear women all the time that believe their calling is to be a stay at home mommy, which is great! My best friend is a stay at home mommy and I completely support that, as she also completely supports me being a working mommy. There are times in my life where I wish things would have worked out so that I could stay home full time, but financially we can’t afford that. I once had a lady tell me if you really wanted to stay home with your kids you would find a way. My response to her was, yes I could find a way, but you know what we would be living out of my car, what kind of life is that? I still see, even in today’s modern society, people just assume that the husband is the breadwinner and the wife’s salary is just the icing on the cake, but for my family it is the other way around. If I didn’t work, we wouldn’t have a home and we wouldn’t have health insurance. While I’ve had my fair share of trouble finding the balance between work and home, I believe I am doing a good job at keeping the balance. My family always always comes first. In the meantime I have to remember one of the reasons I work is to take care of my family, not necessarily to give them everything they want, because trust me that doesn’t happen, but it is to provide for them. Because I work, my family has a roof over their head, clothes on their back, doctors they can visit when they need to and food on their table. So please let us stop the Mommy wars and just support each other in what we choose to do, because every good mom has to make this decision and every good mom chooses the path that is best for THEIR family. The path that is best for my family is for me to work.