The Proverbs 31 Journey: She BUILDS Her House

Memory/Meditation Verse:

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.
~ Prov. 24:3-4

Proverbs is so rich with instruction isn't it? As we explore the Proverbs 31 Journey I came across a verse that fits so well with our memory/meditation verse above:

A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. ~ Proverbs 14:1 (NLT)

If we have been a wife and mother for any length of time we are well aware of the things that build up a house and the things that painfully tear it down. The Proverbs 31 Woman we read about was busy about her household doing things to build her house. Her home is built from her heart and in the center of it is Jesus. Look at our memory verse again...

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.
~ Proverbs 24:3-4 (NLT)

When people walk into your home they can emotionally be swayed by your decorations. From Martha Stewart and HGTV we have learned how to decorate our homes to look their finest but even with the best of the best decor, the house can be just an empty costly building. The aroma of fresh baked cookies has no power over a house full of hatred and tension. The atmosphere of the home can make even the most beautiful homes unwelcoming.

She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight. (vs 13 NASB)

A Proverbs 31 woman is busy about her home. Love and peace fill the air. The beauty of its walls is matched by the Ambiance and warmth of acceptance and grace. Hospitality abounds. She seeks to be wise with her home and she serves her family with joy in her heart. Life may be hard, life may be simple but she knows her home is her highest calling, her greatest ministry. She allows her faith in her God to be her joy. Her home and her family is her high calling from God...her passion, even above her own needs.

My husband and I have become addicted to The Walton's. Remember that show from your childhood? Looking at our current TV programs available for our viewing, we felt cconvicted not to watch them. Today's dad is most often being portrayed as the weaker character, the family of dysfunction has become the new normal, and tolerance for those things not of God is pushed to be accepted. So one night we watched an episode of a Walton's rerun. It has become "our time". This old series displayed family as it should be. Life wasn't perfect, attitudes and mischief occurred but everyone loved everyone despite their short comings and everyone clinged to the home in which their mother Olivia had set the tone. Her faith was her foundation and she was often was shown finding comfort in her Bible. Her home was nurtured by her heart. The Olivia Walton TV character portrayed the Proverbs 31 Woman. You can't find that on modern TV today can you?

She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places

and brings back exotic surprises. (Prov. 31: 14, The Message)

Shifting from TV to reality, the Proverbs 31 Woman is a women who spends wisely within her time and her resources. Idleness is not associated with her. She is a woman of creativity. She is a woman of thriftiness. Now here I have to pause a bit. God created some woman to be better at this than others. Some woman are so crafty, it's a gift and I am not one of them. Some women can create from their hands, others need to shop. But both can be a Proverbs 31 Woman!

She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.

First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.

She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking.
~Proverbs 31: 16-19, The Message

You have to acknowledge the woman of Solomons generations had it a whole lot harder than we do. They had to grind the wheat for flour to make their bread. All we have to do is open the bag. They had to take their laundry to the creek or the lake...we are blessed with front loaders. They had to clean with dirt floors...they had to carry jars for water...they didn't have closets to store their many dresses...

We are a blessed generation. So how are we conducting our households?

She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat. ~ Proverbs 31:27 (Amplified)

Where is your heart in your home? Is it your priority? Is it your calling?

"... I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile." ~ Ps. 101:2-3

The other day I was flipping through the channels and came across a show about women who clip coupons. This particular mom had over $300 worth of food and household items in her carts and she only spent $10 after the coupons. Now that is thrifty isn't it? more power to her but I cannot imagine the time it took her to arrange the coupon for such an event. I do not have the time for this but I can honor my God and my family with my spending just the same.

The Proverbs 31 Woman is thrifty but she is also able to prioritize her time and her needs within the home and within the family structure. Her blog doesn't keep her from her quiet time with God, nor dies it keep her from her household needs. Her dust and the crumbs on her floor can wait when her husband and her children need her more.

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. ~ Prov. 17:1 (NIV)

The Proverbs 31 Woman builds her home on God's truth. The mood of her home is spiritually rich, full of a holy ambiance that can only come from Christ. When she breaks down in an explosive fit of defeat, her family knows she regains her strength and composure through her faith and that she is only human. She can be trusted. Her love is always there for them. She strives to live out her passion for her family and her home with a heart modeled after His.

The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous. ~ Prov. 3:33 (NIV)

The book of Titus speaks of the Proverbs 31 Woman who builds her house...

Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. ~ Titus 2:4-5 (NIV)

God clearly instructs us in Deuteronomy in how we are to build our house:

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. ~ Deut. 6:5-9 (NIV)

It takes strength and courage to build a home...a godly home. this week may we make it our aim to do it just a little bit better!!

Believing Him~Pamela