Proverbs 31 Woman (P31W) - Part VIII - OR - Final Chewy Thoughts (Proverbs 31:30-31).
30 Charm can be deceiving,
and beauty fades away,
but a woman
who honors the Lord
deserves to be praised.
(NIV - Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised).
This is probably the most famous verse in this chapter, usually in the context of telling girls to not be vain cause you will get old and wrinkly one day. Charm means “the power or quality of giving delight or arousing admiration”. Charm means to captivate and/or enthrall. It means to cast a spell or enchant in the verb tense. So yes, girls, our charm is deceptive. We can flirt and arouse peers to admire us. My love of old literature would say, “working the girlish charm” or a more modern translation would be, “girls just wanna have fun”. We have this propensity for flirting and gaining admiration. We like attention, as a girl, as a female, and as a woman. In some contexts, it’s harmless, in others its fun, and in others it is uncontrolled and inappropriate. Today’s society would have us half naked in public, freely sexual and without modesty or moderation in lifestyle choices. Here though, it is made clear that regardless of our desire to be “forever young” it will catch up to us and how we serve God will be the issue that matters
I disagree with this verse a bit, though. The beauty of youth is fleeting. The beauty of being young doesn’t last, no. But the beauty of womanhood never diminishes for those that allow life to transpire without fighting age or time. Women are beautiful. A woman obsessed with being admired and loved for her physical features will be disappointed as she grows old. A woman who grows in God, becomes the living example of a P31W and just lives life, without fear of tomorrow, will have no regrets at the end of her days. A 60-year-old woman of experience and dignity is more beautiful to me though, than any supermodel will ever be. A portrait of a mother and her children will always be more appealing than girls in a bar. A young woman of dignity will always be beautiful, while the girls out on the town stop being pretty at about 2am.
We already know from the other verse that we can wear our purple and be beautiful. We know our beauty isn’t bad, it is what makes us women and feminine. The second half after the conjunction should be the focus of this verse, but rarely seems to get it’s due credit. People love to tell us to not be vain and that our beauty will leave, but rarely do we mention the other (MORE IMPORTANT) part of this verse.
BUT a woman who HONORS the Lord deserves to be praise... a woman who FEARS the Lord is to be praise... Honor means to respect highly, to esteem, to revere the Lord. To fear the Lord is described in Proverbs 1:7 as being the beginning of knowledge. Fear of the Lord for a P31W means a combination of knowledge of Jesus and the reverence, obedience, awe and love of God. Yes, beauty is nice and socializing is great. Those things have their place, but for a P31W God has highest standard, highest consideration and is more important than other girlish things. More important than children, than husband, than duties, careers, flirting, or shoes, is a woman’s focus on Jesus Christ. All the other aspects of these 21 verses will fall into place much easier, if there is time dedicated to God, to study, and to prayer. If we honor God first, we have a better shot at the rest of this chapters daunting requirements.
31 Show her respect-
praise her in public
for what she has done.
(NIV - Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate).
Now I have a question on this one; is that a command for women on treating other women or is this God’s final statement on what will be rewarded to the P31W? Good deeds will find you out. Good works will reap a harvest whenever that happens to be. It rarely comes instantly, but is this for us women? Is this telling us to praise the Godly women around us? Or is this insight to what we will achieve on this journey? Ponder on that, ladies...
But consider this, all the works we do that line up with the P31W guidelines and our call of God, will receive the reward they merit. God is willing that our works bring us praise at the city gates. Now, that doesn’t mean we should expect public thank you’s or cash prizes, because most often we do not get noticed. Most likely, you won’t get praise for taking cookies to the noobs or meals to the sick. You won’t get praise for decorating the church at holidays or for watching little kids or volunteering at the soup kitchen or at your kids schools or coaching little league or a running a summer exercise in the park program or playing piano or serving on committees or whatever your skills are, you probably will NEVER get recognition. HOWEVER, God says we should get it. Maybe we will get some notice of our efforts. But that should never be our goal or motivation.
Like the examples Christ gives of prayers, the loud public prayers of the Pharisees and the quiet prayers said by the humble man, our endeavors to be a P31W should be done in humble honesty and not in hopes of renown. Nowhere in these verses does it say, the P31W is on a pedestal and to be revered. That’s a different religion. It says she will earn her reward and is worthy of praise. Give her respect for her work.
Expect long months and years of working at this model of womanhood without much assistance from those around you. Be prepared to work hard on your heart and your mind to be willing and glad to serve others. Trust that you will have to fight yourself to do what you should when you do not want to serve, to be humbled, to clean up after others, to bind up wounds with no one binding up yours. Expect to resist laziness and strive for productive industriousness while those around you ignore or jeer at your work. Anticipate opposition in the forms of life happening and throwing a monkey wrench into all your plans and making it difficult. Anticipate being tired and stress more than a little by the endeavor. Plan on prayer to help you through each day, each task, each calling from being mommy, to being a wife, a woman, a friend, a single girl, a working woman, in ministry, or in your leisure hours. It will take time so don’t expect to rush in and succeed immediately. Expect failures and expect God’s smiles when you get back up and try again. Expect successes in small things that will grow slowly as they become habit.
Anticipate the kind of woman you want to be in 5 years, in 10 years, in 20 years. Ask God for a glimpse or impression of what that is. You probably won’t recognize yourself. It’ll be worth it. Your kids will see it, your husband will see it, your family will see it, your friends will see it and more so than anything else, God sees it from the very first try.
If you actually read all eight parts of this Proverbs 31 rambling, I thank you! I hope you enjoyed it, that it gave you food for thought or sparked a conversation somehow. Soli Deo Gloria.
Disclaimer: I am not a trained biblical scholar. I am just curious, bible hungry and care for my gender and our crazy methods of learning and growing as a Christian women in a world with a pretty skewed image of what women are or should be. If at any point you see a huge flaw in my logic or an addition that needs to be added to the interpretation, please contact me and help me to correct or add to my expounding on this chapter. I do not claim to have all the answers or the CORRECT version and meaning of all the verses in this series. I am just digging and sharing my findings and research concerning this chapter.
5/2013
and beauty fades away,
but a woman
who honors the Lord
deserves to be praised.
(NIV - Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised).
This is probably the most famous verse in this chapter, usually in the context of telling girls to not be vain cause you will get old and wrinkly one day. Charm means “the power or quality of giving delight or arousing admiration”. Charm means to captivate and/or enthrall. It means to cast a spell or enchant in the verb tense. So yes, girls, our charm is deceptive. We can flirt and arouse peers to admire us. My love of old literature would say, “working the girlish charm” or a more modern translation would be, “girls just wanna have fun”. We have this propensity for flirting and gaining admiration. We like attention, as a girl, as a female, and as a woman. In some contexts, it’s harmless, in others its fun, and in others it is uncontrolled and inappropriate. Today’s society would have us half naked in public, freely sexual and without modesty or moderation in lifestyle choices. Here though, it is made clear that regardless of our desire to be “forever young” it will catch up to us and how we serve God will be the issue that matters
I disagree with this verse a bit, though. The beauty of youth is fleeting. The beauty of being young doesn’t last, no. But the beauty of womanhood never diminishes for those that allow life to transpire without fighting age or time. Women are beautiful. A woman obsessed with being admired and loved for her physical features will be disappointed as she grows old. A woman who grows in God, becomes the living example of a P31W and just lives life, without fear of tomorrow, will have no regrets at the end of her days. A 60-year-old woman of experience and dignity is more beautiful to me though, than any supermodel will ever be. A portrait of a mother and her children will always be more appealing than girls in a bar. A young woman of dignity will always be beautiful, while the girls out on the town stop being pretty at about 2am.
We already know from the other verse that we can wear our purple and be beautiful. We know our beauty isn’t bad, it is what makes us women and feminine. The second half after the conjunction should be the focus of this verse, but rarely seems to get it’s due credit. People love to tell us to not be vain and that our beauty will leave, but rarely do we mention the other (MORE IMPORTANT) part of this verse.
BUT a woman who HONORS the Lord deserves to be praise... a woman who FEARS the Lord is to be praise... Honor means to respect highly, to esteem, to revere the Lord. To fear the Lord is described in Proverbs 1:7 as being the beginning of knowledge. Fear of the Lord for a P31W means a combination of knowledge of Jesus and the reverence, obedience, awe and love of God. Yes, beauty is nice and socializing is great. Those things have their place, but for a P31W God has highest standard, highest consideration and is more important than other girlish things. More important than children, than husband, than duties, careers, flirting, or shoes, is a woman’s focus on Jesus Christ. All the other aspects of these 21 verses will fall into place much easier, if there is time dedicated to God, to study, and to prayer. If we honor God first, we have a better shot at the rest of this chapters daunting requirements.
31 Show her respect-
praise her in public
for what she has done.
(NIV - Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate).
Now I have a question on this one; is that a command for women on treating other women or is this God’s final statement on what will be rewarded to the P31W? Good deeds will find you out. Good works will reap a harvest whenever that happens to be. It rarely comes instantly, but is this for us women? Is this telling us to praise the Godly women around us? Or is this insight to what we will achieve on this journey? Ponder on that, ladies...
But consider this, all the works we do that line up with the P31W guidelines and our call of God, will receive the reward they merit. God is willing that our works bring us praise at the city gates. Now, that doesn’t mean we should expect public thank you’s or cash prizes, because most often we do not get noticed. Most likely, you won’t get praise for taking cookies to the noobs or meals to the sick. You won’t get praise for decorating the church at holidays or for watching little kids or volunteering at the soup kitchen or at your kids schools or coaching little league or a running a summer exercise in the park program or playing piano or serving on committees or whatever your skills are, you probably will NEVER get recognition. HOWEVER, God says we should get it. Maybe we will get some notice of our efforts. But that should never be our goal or motivation.
Like the examples Christ gives of prayers, the loud public prayers of the Pharisees and the quiet prayers said by the humble man, our endeavors to be a P31W should be done in humble honesty and not in hopes of renown. Nowhere in these verses does it say, the P31W is on a pedestal and to be revered. That’s a different religion. It says she will earn her reward and is worthy of praise. Give her respect for her work.
Expect long months and years of working at this model of womanhood without much assistance from those around you. Be prepared to work hard on your heart and your mind to be willing and glad to serve others. Trust that you will have to fight yourself to do what you should when you do not want to serve, to be humbled, to clean up after others, to bind up wounds with no one binding up yours. Expect to resist laziness and strive for productive industriousness while those around you ignore or jeer at your work. Anticipate opposition in the forms of life happening and throwing a monkey wrench into all your plans and making it difficult. Anticipate being tired and stress more than a little by the endeavor. Plan on prayer to help you through each day, each task, each calling from being mommy, to being a wife, a woman, a friend, a single girl, a working woman, in ministry, or in your leisure hours. It will take time so don’t expect to rush in and succeed immediately. Expect failures and expect God’s smiles when you get back up and try again. Expect successes in small things that will grow slowly as they become habit.
Anticipate the kind of woman you want to be in 5 years, in 10 years, in 20 years. Ask God for a glimpse or impression of what that is. You probably won’t recognize yourself. It’ll be worth it. Your kids will see it, your husband will see it, your family will see it, your friends will see it and more so than anything else, God sees it from the very first try.
If you actually read all eight parts of this Proverbs 31 rambling, I thank you! I hope you enjoyed it, that it gave you food for thought or sparked a conversation somehow. Soli Deo Gloria.
Disclaimer: I am not a trained biblical scholar. I am just curious, bible hungry and care for my gender and our crazy methods of learning and growing as a Christian women in a world with a pretty skewed image of what women are or should be. If at any point you see a huge flaw in my logic or an addition that needs to be added to the interpretation, please contact me and help me to correct or add to my expounding on this chapter. I do not claim to have all the answers or the CORRECT version and meaning of all the verses in this series. I am just digging and sharing my findings and research concerning this chapter.
5/2013
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