10 Virtues of a Proverbs 31 Woman

Thought this was a great blog!  I try every day to live up to these standards :)

Thank you to Melissa Ringstaff @ Virtuous Woman for this great article!
http://avirtuouswoman.org/10-virtues-of-the-proverbs-31-woman/ 



We want to encourage women to serve God in every aspect of their lives.
1. Faith - A Virtuous Woman serves God with all of her heart, mind, and soul. She seeks His will for her life and follows His ways. (Proverbs 31: 26, Proverbs 31: 29 – 31, Matthew 22: 37, John 14: 15, Psalm 119: 15
2. Marriage – A Virtuous Woman respects her husband. She does him good all the days of her life. She is trustworthy and a helpmeet. (Proverbs 31: 11- 12, Proverbs 31: 23, Proverbs 31: 28, 1 Peter 3, Ephesians 5, Genesis2: 18)
3.  Mothering - A Virtuous Woman teaches her children the ways of her Father in heaven. She nurtures her children with the love of Christ, disciplines them with care and wisdom, and trains them in the way they should go. (Proverbs 31: 28, Proverbs 31: 26, Proverbs 22: 6, Deuteronomy 6, Luke 18: 16)
4. Health – A Virtuous Woman cares for her body. She prepares healthy food for her family. (Proverbs 31: 14 – 15, Proverbs 31: 17, 1 Corinthians 6: 19, Genesis 1: 29, Daniel 1, Leviticus 11)
5. Service - A Virtuous Woman serves her husband, her family, her friends, and her neighbors with a gentle and loving spirit. She is charitable. (Proverbs 31: 12, Proverbs 31: 15, Proverbs 31: 20, 1 Corinthians 13: 13)
6. Finances - A Virtuous Woman seeks her husband’s approval before making purchases and spends money wisely. She is careful to purchase quality items which her family needs. (Proverbs 31: 14, Proverbs 31: 16, Proverbs 31: 18, 1 Timothy 6: 10, Ephesians 5: 23, Deuteronomy 14: 22, Numbers 18: 26)
7.  Industry – A Virtuous Woman works willingly with her hands. She sings praises to God and does not grumble while completing her tasks. (Proverbs 31: 13, Proverbs 31: 16, Proverbs 31: 24, Proverbs 31: 31, Philippians 2: 14)
8. Homemaking – A Virtuous Woman is a homemaker. She creates an inviting atmosphere of warmth and love for her family and guests. She uses hospitality to minister to those around her. (Proverbs 31: 15, Proverbs 31: 20 – 22, Proverbs 31: 27, Titus 2: 5, 1 Peter 4: 9, Hebrews 13: 2)
9. Time - A Virtuous Woman uses her time wisely. She works diligently to complete her daily tasks. She does not spend time dwelling on those things that do not please the Lord. (Proverbs 31: 13, Proverbs 31: 19, Proverbs 31: 27, Ecclesiastes 3, Proverbs 16: 9, Philippians 4:8 )
10. Beauty – A Virtuous Woman is a woman of worth and beauty. She has the inner beauty that only comes from Christ. She uses her creativity and sense of style to create beauty in her life and the lives of her loved ones. (Proverbs 31: 10Proverbs 31: 21 – 22, Proverbs 31: 24 -25, Isaiah 61: 10, 1 Timothy 2: 9, 1 Peter 3: 1 – 6)

My story

My first post!  I could probably fill an entire book with the ways that the Lord has changed my life in this past year ..  some good, some not so good, but all for the glory of Him - that I do know.  I thought the most fitting way to introduce my blog is with a little something about where I came from.  This is something that I wrote out in May of this year after I had a pretty significant awakening to the Lord!  I hope you enjoy reading :) 

For my entire life I have always believed that there is something more than this world. I was baptized Lutheran, but I did not grow up in the faith or in the church. I did always feel like it was something I wanted to explore. I had many friends who were Christians and I truly felt sad that there was this “club” or “secret society” that I did not belong to. They would invite me to church with them, or to their youth groups, but as a child trying to make that decision for myself was never something I was comfortable with. I had heard the negative connotations of religion (not from my parents because they have always been very supportive, but from society) so I was fearful of getting involved in something like a cult.  I spent my teens and early twenties living for myself and the world, all the while having this pull towards Christianity. At the time I did not feel comfortable exploring this on my own and was overwhelmed with where I would even start.

I was blessed in 2001 to meet my husband Adam. Adam had been brought up Lutheran, in a household where he had gone to a parochial school and attended church regularly as a child. I admired his strong faith, and even though he was in a place where he had not been a regular church goer since school, he knew that it was something he wanted to have as an integral part in his future marriage and family. Adam and I decided that we would find a church to start attending regularly so that we would have someplace to start our life together in marriage and eventually with our future children.

We found a Lutheran church that we started to attend, along with some bible studies here and there. Once we were married, life got in the way and we became the “holiday” church attenders. We had our first child, had him baptized and then more life got in the way. We were not always motivated to go to church because our life was just so BUSY. After the birth of our second child, we decided that we wanted to become more involved in the church not only with our weekly attendance but also by being involved in leadership areas and bible studies.

It was at this point I threw myself into volunteer opportunities at the church. I volunteered for PTL, I was sitting on the Board for Early Childhood Ministry, I undertook getting the church website redone, as well as undertaking many of the marketing outreach events for the church, school and childcare center. I began to feel like I was a better Christian because of my works for the church. Surely this would start fulfilling me! (insert sarcastic tone here)

I did not want to say anything to anyone, but inside deep down I was dead spiritually. I had spent the past few years going to Sunday church services and “doing” all the things I should during that hour. I read my bible and devotionals. I would try and pray to God, but it was an uncomfortable process for me where I never felt like I knew what I was doing or that there was anyone listening to me. I would hear people talk about their personal relationship with Christ and how they felt Him guiding them … and I would think to myself, what am I missing? Either I am not doing something right, or these people are full of it! So me being me, I decided that what I needed was more book reading about it! I poured myself into every Christian book I could about prayer and Christianity. I thought that the more I read about it and the more I learned about the bible, I would start to feel Him in my heart.  You know, because you can often create feelings for something/someone by highly intellectualizing it! (insert more sarcasm here)  Fast forward to Thursday, January 27th, 2012 .. a day that I will remember forever. I had come across a program the week before called “The Way of the Master” which is done by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. Once I got past the ridicule in my head about the fact that I was going to be getting my spiritual knowledge from someone I watched on a sitcom in the 80’s and the jokes from my husband about how it sounded more like a Kung-Fu program rather than a Christian evangelism program, I decided to give it a try. I listened to the audio cds that it came with, as well as read the book describing the program which is a training program for evangelizing. When I was listening to it I was doing it for the sole reason of being able to use it to evangelize to non-Christians, which I thought might be something that I should start to do. (You know, because as Christians we all have in our head we SHOULD be evangelizing, but most of us just think it’s a spiritual gift of SOME rather than something Jesus commissioned ALL of us to do)  My eyes were opened in a way they never were before! I devoured every word I was hearing and poured over every word that I read. When I turned the last page of the book that night, I sat there in awe of what I had discovered. In my readings I had discovered that I myself had been living a lie. I was not confident about my own salvation, and this book presented it in a way to me that brought me to my knees asking God for forgiveness. I decided to pray. Even though I had never prayed a prayer that didn’t feel forced, I knew it was something I had to do. I sat on my bed and prayed for 15 minutes straight (which for me felt like a lifetime!). I asked God for forgiveness for my transgression of his Law, asked for forgiveness for living my life MY way instead of His, asked God to fill me with His spirit so that I could have the strength and guidance to accept the grace that was given to me with the death of His Son.  I laid my head on my pillow, tears streaming down my face and mentally exhausted from the realization that I’d come to, but eventually fell asleep confident that God would finally show me the way.

It was about an hour later (after tossing and turning) that I felt like I was electrically charged. Not only could I not sleep, my whole body felt like it was tingling with electricity. My hands were shaking and my mind was racing. I could not settle down! I got up and started pacing the bedroom and the kitchen trying to figure out what was happening. Then it dawned on me – I was having one of “those” moments! I was filled with the Holy Spirit to the point of bursting! It was what I had prayed for as long as I could remember … “God, I know it’s unfair to ask you to prove to me, but if you could just give me some way of knowing you are here with me” And here I was experiencing the exact thing I had been asking for.  I can’t describe the feeling that came over me, but I can genuinely tell you that it was REAL and it was GOD. I did not go back to sleep that entire night and did not even feel tired the next day. I had to force myself to go to sleep Friday night because I was still so excited about what was happening to me. I was truly being changed from the inside out.

It’s been a week since that happened and I can tell you that I HAVE been changed. I have a prayer life that is much more fulfilling and I do feel that God is listening to me. I read my bible and feel connected to it. I listen to a sermon and it’s so much more meaningful to me. I am tempted to do things or say things that are not in accordance to God’s law and I don’t do them because I know that I don’t want to defile the Holy Spirit that is now living inside of me.

This is all because I finally came to Christ – and I did this because of how it was shown to me. I was presented with the Law, broken down because I knew I had transgressed from this law, and then when I was completely filled with despair, was given the wonderful news of the gospel and what Jesus had done for me. I never truly appreciated the gospel without knowing WHY I needed it so badly. When I was presented with the law, the Gospel suddenly made sense to me! This was something that had never been preached to me at church, or evangelized to me by any Christian I have ever known.
Now my husband has read through and listened to the same program. He has been able to evangelize to 4 clients at work this week. We bought a case of bibles for him to have in his office and we are excited to start talking to our friends and family so that they know the amazing power of God. And we do it with confidence and with love. It’s truly amazing and has changed our lives. I cannot wait to see the direction God takes us. I’m scared and excited. But no matter what I finally know that God IS with me. And I am giving it all up to him so that he can work THROUGH me.