A Wife of Noble Character

Awhile back my husband told me that if I did not stop "directing the show" we may not end up where the Lord wants to take us. I was silent after he said that, yes, I, Carla did not say anything. His words really spoke to my heart. Since Jim and I had been married I found myself following his lead and then sometimes dragging him to follow mine. I was okay to follow as long as I agreed with him...I was not trusting my husband to make Godly decisions, bottom line was "I was not trusting God." I know that is not how God planned marriage to be. I was failing miserably in this area of my life...teaching our daughter that submission to her husband is not important. Oh no...there it is, the big S word! Hold on to your hats ladies, submission means freedom! Yes, freedom. It means we stop living our lives as the world says that we should live them and follow God's instructions for us. How do we go wrong with following Him? He created us; I think He knows a little bit about how we think!
I am about to embark on a series of blog posts on the Proverbs 31 Woman along with practical ways that we can become her. We live in a society that tells us lies about who we are to be as women. I think it's time we stop listening and turn our hearts to the heart of the Proverbs 31 Woman and ask the Lord to help us become more like her. After all, she is in the Scriptures for a reason.
Beautiful women...take a few moments and read the following Scriptures. I am excited to begin our journey together!

Proverbs 31:10-31

¹⁰ ^c]">[c] 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.

¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

²⁹ "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

³¹ Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

I offer myself to You....

The MW Collegiate Dictionary defines the word offer as: to present as an act of worship or devotion : sacrifice b : to utter (as a prayer) in devotion

There is a prayer that I learned in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous called the Third Step Prayer and it goes as follows:

God, I offer myself to Thee-

To build with me

and to do with me as Thou wilt.

Relieve me of the bondage of self,

that I may better do Thy will.

Take away my difficulties,

that victory over them may bear witness

to those I would help of Thy Power,

Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.

May I do Thy will always!

This prayer is used prior to someone making an admission of all the sin that is in their lives; without God it is very difficult to look at those very ugly things that are inside of each one of us. So, having been out of AA for roughly six months ( I did not relapse) and just going back recently I decided that I was going to stay focused on what is from Christ rather than stay focused on what is not. I came to realize that while I was gone I started building resentments against people, was sitting on the pity pot and had become very needy and unfortunately manipulative. Now, I am not in any way shape or form stating that AA is what keeps me sober (it is not just absence of alcohol); it is the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. There is a wonderful thing that takes place in the rooms of AA and that is accountability. People are not afraid to tell you when "your slip is showing"; they will call you on your pride, they will not sit on the pity pot with you; most times it is done in love...sometimes it is not.

I started meditating on this particular prayer today and have not gotten beyond the word offer. To fully understand what this prayer means I need to know what each word means. I had always thought of the word offer to mean to freely give, which it does also mean that. To see the words :To present as an act of worship or devotion! Wow, man that hit me so hard. Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge your brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."

What does it really mean to offer myself to God as a daily sacrifice, to do with me as He wills? Offering myself to Him means that I freely give myself to Him in and act of devotion, in an act of love to use me, to allow me to be His vessel. The sacrifice on my part means that IT IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! Okay, I said it...yes, it is not about me. Period. What kind of sacrifice am I giving my God if in my offering of myself to Him do I want to take some credit; you know pat ME on the back because I said yes to God and that is why you are getting better. Pleas! How sin has completely warped our minds. So for today I am going to move from being self centered to God centered and remember that It's not all about me.

1992 Ford Pick Up

About a year ago my husband and I started praying for a pick up truck, we needed one to haul fire wood and it seems like throughout the spring and summer we always know someone who is moving. About six months into praying for one our Pastor told us that our truck was going to be white with red, white for the purity of Christ and red for His blood. Of course EVERY red and white truck I saw was "the truck"; I made phone calls told people what we needed it for and we never ended up with the truck...I never talked to Jim before I made any of these phone calls and couldn't understand why the Lord was not providing our truck! After all, I was praying, I was out looking, I was making the phone calls and I was attempting to control the blessing! A couple of months ago my husband was on his way home from work and he told me that for the past nine months he had been passing a 1992 Ford pick up that was grey that had had a For Sale sign in the window however, the sign had just been taken out. To my dismay I said to him "Why don't you pray about it"; two days later he stopped and looked at the truck, the price was right, it was still for sale, had minimal things wrong with it and the owner was willing to even come down in price without him asking; the only problem was the truck was, yep you know it. It was grey, not white and red as our Pastor (who has a gift to know what is from him and what is from the Holy Spirit). Jim and I couldn't understand, we thought maybe it was a test of obedience. The following day Jim met with the man and was talking with him and just when he went to tell him that he was going to spend more time praying about it, he put his hand down on "our" truck and noticed a red and white pin stripe. We purchased the truck the following Monday.

The Israelites could not recognize the Savior when He came because they were looking for a King that would come and set up his kingdom just as so many of the Kings in the OT did; they were not able to see the incredible blessing the Lord had wished to bestow upon them. Now, I am not in any what saying that the blessing of our truck is the same as the blessing of our Savior Jesus Christ, the two do not compare. I think we can learn from this by letting go of expecting God to bless us with what we perceive we should have and be open to seeing the real blessing behind it, I don't know if that makes any sense. I know that the blessing was not the truck by any means; the blessing was the answer to yet another prayer.