The Proverbs 31 Woman – Week 6
by Stephanie
Woohoo…we are up to week 6 in our Proverbs 31 series!!!
This week we are looking at verses 19 & 20
“In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.”
I can’t get over the mundane work the Proverbs 31 woman does. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle to spin her own thread to use to sew her family’s clothing! And I think ironing is hard work! lol! Oh my, is this a mundane task!
I feel quite sure that she did not enjoy every second of this – in the same way that I don’t enjoy every second of scrubbing a toilet BUT she has a willing heart. She is willing to do it because hidden within the mundane is a treasure – the treasure of making her home a haven for her own family and for those in need.
I love the analogy Angela uses in the video below of the Good Samaritan:
(If you are seeing this in a feed or email- click here to see the video Also, if you are new here – Angela is leading the Proverbs 31 study over at GoodMorningGirls.org all summer long! I encourage you to check out all the guest posts and practical wisdom found there!)
Now here is Angela’s challenge for us——>
Weekly Challenge: Pray and ask God to help you see the needs of others around you. Then bless someone this week by seeing the need and meeting it. Share in the comment section how God worked through you to meet this need.
Ideas include:
Helping someone while you are out and about during your day…..picking up something that they dropped, carrying out the groceries etc.
Babysitting for the single mom down the road
Going through your closet and giving some of your cloths away to those who need them
Surprise the family down the street who are having financial problems with a gift card or a check to help pay for one of their bills.
Sponsor a child through Compassion or World Vision
Help out in a soup kitchen
Help with VBS
Over Memorial Day, my husband rebuilt our mailbox and the neighbor’s mailbox.
Keith put each of us to work with a task. Alexis and I did all the painting. Then the boys did the hammering while we passed them the nails. Before long – voila! 2 new mailboxes.
A day later, the doorbell rang and it was our next door neighbor. She’s an older woman who was recently widowed. With her eyes full of tears and a smile as wide as the sky, she grabbed me and hugged me and said:
”Thank you SO much! With my husband gone and my children living far away in other states, I didn’t know how I was ever going to fix my mailbox. That is something my husband would have handled and I’ve been worried about it.”
She tried to offer us money, which we refused, and she hugged me two more times before leaving. Oh I could feel the relief and joy she felt from this simple thing my husband had done and it made me wonder – what else is she worrying about that I could be of use for.
Is my neighbor poor? Financially no – but she had a need that we were able to meet. We sponsor children through World Help and Compassion, but I must say that we don’t have to look across the ocean to find someone in need – in our case – I only need to look across my lawn to the widow next door!
The beauty that radiates from the Proverbs 31 woman is a beauty that comes from the lives she has touched.
So I wonder – Have you ever been in need and someone extended a hand to you? Please share your stories in the comments – I think it will remind us that God uses us – his children – to be an extension of his loving hands.
Walk with the King,
As For Me and My House 