Thought for the Day

Verse 27 - A godly woman runs her household well and does not indulge in laziness. Satan uses tactics such as idleness to weaken a woman's character. Timothy was told to instruct widows under sixty to marry and keep house; otherwise they became busybodies (1 Timothy 5:13-15). Another tactic he uses is pushing women to either extremes in spiritual pursuits, or the opposite: extremes in their household duties. There should be a balance. If unequally yoked, some become overly spiritual and neglect their husbands. In such cases, she should remember that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! She should take good care of her husband, cooking what he likes and doing special things for him. This should not be done as a bribe, but out of love for him and obedience to the Lord. He might then ask her the reason she has changed. She could humbly tell him that the Lord spoke to her about neglecting the home, and that God wants happy marriages. Knowing that God is interested in him draws a man to God.

Corrected priorities also frequently wins rebellious children. Many Christians show the love of Jesus to everyone outside their homes while their own families are starved for it, and are often crying out through their rebellion. We should certainly demonstrate Christ's love to others, but should show it first in our homes. Wives and mothers must recall that properly caring for their husbands and children is their primary responsibility. "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed" (Titus 2:4-5). It is easy to become overly spiritual like Mary or overly practical like Martha (Luke 10:38-42). The Lord wants us to be balanced; to beware of becoming so "heavenly minded that we are no earthly good" and of being so practical that we miss the beauty of the Spirit.

Verses 28-29 - Bathsheba began the conclusion of her instruction by observing that a virtuous woman's care of her family is so excellent, that her children call her blessed and her husband praises her. Some of us may feel we fall far beneath this Biblical model, but we can aspire to her example by asking the Lord to help us in the areas where we are failing. As wives and mothers, we should examine our lives to see where we fall short, and ask God to help us be like the woman spoken of in these verses. Do our children call us blessed? What about our husbands? Are they praising us? Perhaps our children are rebellious at this time; maybe our husbands are far from the Christian ideal, and neither is praising or blessing us. Do we blame them, and insist that the Lord change them, or do we ask the Lord to turn the searchlight upon our own faults and failures, so that He might work a change in us? Our number one problem is not our children, our mates, our job, or our circumstances - it is ourselves. Until we are willing to change ourselves, the Lord cannot begin the needed change in our families.

How does God effect these changes in our lives? First of all, we must be honest with God and face our shortcomings and sins. We must come confessing: "God, I am resentful toward my husband and children. I don't want to be like this, but I can't help it. Please enable me to be the kind of wife and mother that will inspire them to bless me." When we do things out of love, without expecting anything in return, and ask the Lord for a loving and wise spirit to perform our daily chores, we will see changes in ourselves and those we love, since our seeds of love will bring a harvest.