October Reflections on Proverbs 31: Day 10, Verse 10

"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies." 

(Verses 10-31 of Proverbs 31 are an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.)

"Wife" here isn't referring just to a lady with a husband. The root Hebrew word refers to women, wives, mothers: you.

I know so many moms who live under a dark cloud of guilt and shame for whatever reason. Not being good enough, being too hard on their kids, losing their temper, making a mistake, not being like so-and-so, not having that put-together look, their children don't measure up, not having a spotless house, etc. Guilt and shame are some of the two greatest immobilizers in the Kingdom of God. They convince you to keep them around to motivate you to to do more, to do less but they only produce defeat. 

How do we become a woman of noble character more precious than rubies? "Grace, grace, God's grace..."

You see the rest of Proverbs 31 is about all the things a woman of noble character does. But the doing doesn't come by striving. It doesn't come by trying harder. We can do our best to try to be the perfect mom, the perfect wife, the perfect woman and still end up feeling like a failure. 

It's by God's free gift of grace. Our good works flow out of the overflow of what God is already doing inside us. And it all begins with grace. A stark contrast to the guilt and shame motivators, hope and joy we find in grace actually empowers us to do God's will: to love Him with our whole hearts and to love others as ourselves.

Look forward to rest of these verses we are about to study on a woman of noble character not as a check off list or a comparison chart. See it as a reality of what a woman overflowing with God's grace in her own life can accomplish. To be sure, a woman plagued by guilt and shame cannot not do much if she's bound by defeat. Grace enables us to be the woman of noble character more precious than rubies.

You are a rare find, mama. A treasure more valuable than precious gems. You are priceless. Don't let anyone or anything tell you otherwise. Let God wash you daily (evenly hourly or by the minute for those trying days) in His fresh grace. No amount of condemnation will spur you on to do His will. Only God's grace can produce life, that life to the full. Noble character isn't forced. It flows.