In March I spoke at a women's retreat for our church's association. I was incredibly nervous to say the least but God was in control as he always is. I spoke way too fast the first night but then we had feedback time and it was AMAZING! The Lord was definitely working and it was wonderful to be in a room full of God Fearing women! I have had many women as to see, read or hear my speech from that weekend but I wasn't ready because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. I have now come up with a plan that I am comfortable and ready for. I don't want to keep it to myself any longer because I don't want to be to one to stop God from working in your life or anyone else that may be reading this. So here's the plan.... on Mondays I am going to post a section of the content and then on Thursday I will go back and answer or respond to any feedback left on the post. Yes I am asking you to please leave feedback and or questions. I WANT to know how this is effecting you and how God is working in your heart. I am not sure how many weeks this will take to go through these 21 verses but most of the time there will be 2-3 verses at a time. Here we go, I pray that God uses me and blesses you!
~Give grace, Live grace and Love gracefully
Week 1:
Proverbs 31:10-31
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I mean this woman is Amazing! But I have to admit,
sometimes I have Proverbs 31 phobia!! Some people look at the proverbs 31 woman and think
"I don't even like her. There is no way it is even possible or this woman is too intimidating!"
Well God isn't calling us to be this woman over night. We have a lifetime of relying on God and
building our relationship with God so that we can become the Proverbs 31 woman.
I am far from the Proverbs 31 woman even though it is truly my heart's desire to be her and I will
continue to reach for that goal. My faith has always been there but my commitment to God is stronger
now than ever. You can be a Proverbs 31 woman too, it IS going to take some time, there will be
A LOT of bumps in the road but we HAVE to rely on God and trust in him with every aspect of our lives.
God loves you right where you are but he doesn't want you to stay there, he has bigger and better things
in store for each and everyone of us here.
This is not a woman that we automatically are, this is a woman that we become.
The standards look so high and unattainable but with Christ they are more than attainable.
What is Woman?
She is made in the image of God because man is the image of God. She is made to be man’s companion.
We are not whole on our own, we are made to complete the man. Genesis 2:18
We are going to look at the characteristics of a Godly woman....
PROVERBS 31:10-11
10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
Verses 10 & 11
This woman is RARE ( to some people like my husband this how you order a steak, or
to some people it’s like a ruby or a diamond or to my 8 year old son it’s every single penny that he finds
and he has to pick up because he may not find another one anytime soon.
But rare is actually defined as Seldom occurring or Seldom found.) meaning she is hard to find.
She not to be of the world but unlike the world. We are called to be strong, mighty and kind for our
husbands and children. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing anything right and nothing is going as planned,
we all have those days, but then there are those little rare moments that are like reminders from God saying
"Hey you aren't doing too bad after all." One of the moments happened around Christmas time and I had
wrapped all the kids' presents expect my oldest sons because I didn't have his yet. Well he was getting ready
to leave to go on a vacation with his dad so I wanted to get his presents wrapped and under the tree before
he left. So I did and I said "Hey, you finally have presents under the tree." and he looked up at me and
said "Mom I'd be fine with even one present because that's not what Christmas is about and some kids don't
even get one." That made my heart melt and that to me was one of those rare moments from God saying
"See you're doing something right." We have to have a deep relationship with God to understand when he is
speaking to us. A deep relationship meaning: not just like knowing that I am Heidi... People know that I
am photographer, a mother and a wife. But many of those people don’t know me on a personal level.
If you know me on a personal level you know that I HATE pickles, I love to talk and I love my family, my mother
is one of very best friends. I love scrapbooking and so much more. But if you don’t have a personal relationship
with me you probably don’t know these things. That’s how a relationship is with God, it has to be personal,
intimate and deep. Which means we have to love, trust and confide in him daily. When God speaks to us
He speaks in many different ways, he can speak to us through circumstances, the Bible or through
Christian friends but when we have that deep relationship with God we KNOW when he is speaking to us.
The proverbs 31 woman loves God with her whole heart and relies on Him. She and her husband are also a
team and they trust each other in everything. He trusts her with his children, his finances and his life.
Please take some time to reflect on these two verses. Ask God to show himself to you, to start changing you now into the RARE woman of God that he desire you to be. It's never too late to start developing the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman and it's also never too early. We can not do this on our own in any way, we will always fail if we do it alone. We must trust that God has it under control and HE WILL PROVIDE.
Looking forward to comments and questions on Thursday!
Love to you all and remember, Give grace, Live grace and Love gracefully
