Queen Of Hearts!
Sermon
Wearing The Wind
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third)
Sociologists have defined her. Psychologists have analyzed her. Pollsters have surveyed her. But here's what those who know her best -- children -- have to say.
Liz Ann, age 8. "Who is a mother? She knows what is important. This is why God asked her to be a mother."
Louise, age 7. "A mother is the only one if she sings your favorite song it stops thundering."
Jimmy, age 8. "A mommy is a wife. A mommy looks after children and she yells."
Gary, age 6. "A mother doesn't do anything except she wants to. Nobody makes her take baths and naps or takes her frog away."
Harry, age 8. "If I forget to tell my mom I need my shepherd costume tomorrow morning, she finds one in the night. That is a mother."
Laura, age 6. "Mothers are wonderful! She spends all her time on you. A mother is like God, except God is better."
As with these children, today's text is a celebration of the feminine and motherhood. And with Proverbs 31 we can etch the role of the woman in family a bit more deeply and accurately in our minds.
I've heard Proverbs 31 called the Statue of Liberty of Womanhood. My wife calls the Proverbs 31 lady "The Bionic Christian Woman." After all, she sells real estate, does lap work, is a cook, wife, mother, and directs a staff. Indeed, she is the Empress of Domestic Arts.
Today when motherhood is so avoided, when male and female roles are so confused, when the home is so frequently broken, when college Home Economics majors are a dying breed, so many women are asking, "How can I be the woman God wants me to be?" How can I be the wife my husband adores? My children need? My boss requires? My friends depend upon?
Other societies have been confused, too, over the role of women. Amazon women in South America cut off a breast so they could pull a bow. Feminists in North America abort their children so they can have a career or shapely figure or both. But the Bible shares the good news that no female need mutilate herself to be the right person. Just being yourself in Christ is enough!
The role model for women is Proverbs 31. Don't be intimidated by her. Simply imitate her.
True, the Proverbs 31 woman never really existed except in the mind of a queen. This Bible chapter is the childhood memory of Lemuel, a young prince. It was the wisdom his mother put there, a sort of composite ideal.
Attitude
First, consider the attitude this feminine role model has.
Likely she is not a beauty queen. In verse 30 her husband praised her character not her body. He minimized beauty and charm, saying, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
Today we emphasize too much a woman's looks, weight, hair, nails, and clothing. And we act as if character doesn't matter. We need to skim such ladies magazines as Glamour, Vogue, Vanity, and Better Homes and Gardens to see what I mean.
The result? We fix in our minds a view of womanhood that is both false and unreachable. So women are frustrated, angry, depressed, self-loathing, and anorexic.
The Bible tells us of Satan, the deceiver. He didn't like what God made him to be -- a creature, limited, under God's authority. So he rebelled, trying to be someone he was not. And when I do not accept myself, my limits, I share in his rebellion.
The Proverbs 31 woman is self-accepting. She may not have had the glamour, but she had the character. Read the litany of her life. There were no "if only" games in her head. "If only I were richer ... If only I were prettier ... If only I had wed another man ... If only I had this ... If only I were like her!"
The Germans have a proverb: "We must carve our lives out of the wood we have." That's what God's woman does. No wishful comparisons. No unfair expectations. Like the character in the play You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown! she sings, "I'm awfully glad I'm me!" And she busies herself making the most of who she is in her family, town, and day with God.
In verse 21 she is "not afraid of the snow." Verse 25 mentions her dignity, laughter, and strength. Verse 18 mentions her business sense: "She perceives that her merchandise is profitable." Clearly her inner life matches what God thinks and expects of her.
I know a woman recently widowed. She's let herself go, is unkempt, smelly, and reclusive. "I have no one to look at me, to make me feel wanted anymore." She'd stopped caring for the outside because she didn't care for the inside. But the Proverbs 31 woman kept her inside attitude in tune with God and it made her outside most appealing.
Actions
Now, let's consider this role model's actions.
There are two types of people -- givers and takers. Givers are creative, industrious servants, loving and nurturing. Takers are lazy, expect a handout, are selfish and lustful. Today, vast numbers of women are becoming takers.
Nowhere has this become more obvious than with abortion. Twenty-six percent of pregnancies in North Carolina are aborted. There's an abortion every 22 seconds in the United States. There were over one million infants slain last year in this nation. Why? Because women were living for their rights, not their responsibilities.
Indeed! Women have a right to choose to have sex or not. They have a right to choose conception control or not. But after a child is conceived no woman has a right to murder!
Where is the God-given maternal instinct today? It is crushed under the feet of the feminine self hell-bent on taking instead of giving. Hence Mother Teresa observed, "You are a destroyed nation. When you start killing your own children, what is left to destroy?"
The Proverbs 31 woman has children. "Her children rise up and call her blessed!" (v. 38).
The most God-like act of which one is capable is parenthood: to create with God, to love with God, to train with God, to suffer and sacrifice with God, to forgive with God. The woman of Proverbs 31 is properly in the middle of all this. She is a nurturer, clothing (v. 21), cooking (v. 15), training (vv. 2-5), and even helping a son find a suitable wife (v. 10).
She's not ingrown nor "cocooned" with just her family. Verse 20 speaks of her helping the poor. She is kind (v. 26). And she is even an economic force in the city, selling girdles, planting fields, and selling real estate (vv. 16, 24).
Yes, there are givers and takers. But our holy madam is a giver. She loves herself. But she also loves her neighbor.
Characteristics
Let us now examine her characteristics.
Verses 10-31 extol her as a commendable wife and mother, family-centered, industrious, self-disciplined, orderly, a shrewd businesswoman, refined of taste, manifesting grace and hospitality, charitable with the needy, deeply respectful of God. Wow! What a mouthful!
A divorce lawyer recently figured out the monetary value of a homemaker. A woman in such a role is chauffeur, gardener, family counselor, nanny, cleaning woman, bookkeeper, seamstress, cook, dishwasher, nurse, tutor, and more. This attorney calculated 40,823.64 dollars a year, or 785.07 dollars a week. Indeed, the value of a good wife has long been known. Verse 10 says she is "more precious than rubies."
I like the cartoon of a boy looking at his mom's wedding picture and asking, "Is that the day you came to work for us?" Yes, ladies, it starts when you sink into his arms! It ends with your arms in the sink.
But notice carefully. The Proverbs 31 lady is not motivated by pay. Nor is she afraid of her husband. Why does she get up so early to cook? Why does she stay up late sewing? Verse 30 says she fears God. She is awed by the Almighty. He is her motivation.
Isn't it interesting that she trusts in God. So she takes on God's characteristics. Verses 11-12 say of her, "The heart of her husband trusts in her. She does him good all the days of her life."
If your oven worked nine out of ten times, would you have it? If your car worked every day but Fridays would you keep it? Of course not! And our empress of the domestic scene, Mrs. Proverbs 31, is steadfast. She is so daily. There is no lapse in her.
Not all women are like this. Proverbs 12:4 says, "A good wife is the crown of her husband. But she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones."
The interesting thing about trusting God is that it makes us trustworthy. The "fruit of the Spirit is ... faithfulness" (Galatians 5). And this trust also leads us to trust others. Note in the text how this woman does it all. She delegates. "She provides tasks for her maidens" (v. 15). She gives responsibility away, to her children and to her helpers.
She's not cynical. She believes in God and his people.
Conclusion
Reduce this laudable woman to her basics in attitude, action, and characteristics and you get someone living the great commandment. She loves God, and she loves her neighbor as herself (Mark 12:28-31).
And how important are such mothers? A few years ago my wife was out shopping. I was home with my three children. My middle son, age twelve, walked in, saw mom was missing, and said, "Where is everybody?"
Where are the mothers of this generation? Where are those givers who'll love God, self, husband, children, and town?
Will you ask God to make you such a woman? For indeed, such feminine ideals are not made of earthly strivings. They are built by the divine!
Liz Ann, age 8. "Who is a mother? She knows what is important. This is why God asked her to be a mother."
Louise, age 7. "A mother is the only one if she sings your favorite song it stops thundering."
Jimmy, age 8. "A mommy is a wife. A mommy looks after children and she yells."
Gary, age 6. "A mother doesn't do anything except she wants to. Nobody makes her take baths and naps or takes her frog away."
Harry, age 8. "If I forget to tell my mom I need my shepherd costume tomorrow morning, she finds one in the night. That is a mother."
Laura, age 6. "Mothers are wonderful! She spends all her time on you. A mother is like God, except God is better."
As with these children, today's text is a celebration of the feminine and motherhood. And with Proverbs 31 we can etch the role of the woman in family a bit more deeply and accurately in our minds.
I've heard Proverbs 31 called the Statue of Liberty of Womanhood. My wife calls the Proverbs 31 lady "The Bionic Christian Woman." After all, she sells real estate, does lap work, is a cook, wife, mother, and directs a staff. Indeed, she is the Empress of Domestic Arts.
Today when motherhood is so avoided, when male and female roles are so confused, when the home is so frequently broken, when college Home Economics majors are a dying breed, so many women are asking, "How can I be the woman God wants me to be?" How can I be the wife my husband adores? My children need? My boss requires? My friends depend upon?
Other societies have been confused, too, over the role of women. Amazon women in South America cut off a breast so they could pull a bow. Feminists in North America abort their children so they can have a career or shapely figure or both. But the Bible shares the good news that no female need mutilate herself to be the right person. Just being yourself in Christ is enough!
The role model for women is Proverbs 31. Don't be intimidated by her. Simply imitate her.
True, the Proverbs 31 woman never really existed except in the mind of a queen. This Bible chapter is the childhood memory of Lemuel, a young prince. It was the wisdom his mother put there, a sort of composite ideal.
Attitude
First, consider the attitude this feminine role model has.
Likely she is not a beauty queen. In verse 30 her husband praised her character not her body. He minimized beauty and charm, saying, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
Today we emphasize too much a woman's looks, weight, hair, nails, and clothing. And we act as if character doesn't matter. We need to skim such ladies magazines as Glamour, Vogue, Vanity, and Better Homes and Gardens to see what I mean.
The result? We fix in our minds a view of womanhood that is both false and unreachable. So women are frustrated, angry, depressed, self-loathing, and anorexic.
The Bible tells us of Satan, the deceiver. He didn't like what God made him to be -- a creature, limited, under God's authority. So he rebelled, trying to be someone he was not. And when I do not accept myself, my limits, I share in his rebellion.
The Proverbs 31 woman is self-accepting. She may not have had the glamour, but she had the character. Read the litany of her life. There were no "if only" games in her head. "If only I were richer ... If only I were prettier ... If only I had wed another man ... If only I had this ... If only I were like her!"
The Germans have a proverb: "We must carve our lives out of the wood we have." That's what God's woman does. No wishful comparisons. No unfair expectations. Like the character in the play You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown! she sings, "I'm awfully glad I'm me!" And she busies herself making the most of who she is in her family, town, and day with God.
In verse 21 she is "not afraid of the snow." Verse 25 mentions her dignity, laughter, and strength. Verse 18 mentions her business sense: "She perceives that her merchandise is profitable." Clearly her inner life matches what God thinks and expects of her.
I know a woman recently widowed. She's let herself go, is unkempt, smelly, and reclusive. "I have no one to look at me, to make me feel wanted anymore." She'd stopped caring for the outside because she didn't care for the inside. But the Proverbs 31 woman kept her inside attitude in tune with God and it made her outside most appealing.
Actions
Now, let's consider this role model's actions.
There are two types of people -- givers and takers. Givers are creative, industrious servants, loving and nurturing. Takers are lazy, expect a handout, are selfish and lustful. Today, vast numbers of women are becoming takers.
Nowhere has this become more obvious than with abortion. Twenty-six percent of pregnancies in North Carolina are aborted. There's an abortion every 22 seconds in the United States. There were over one million infants slain last year in this nation. Why? Because women were living for their rights, not their responsibilities.
Indeed! Women have a right to choose to have sex or not. They have a right to choose conception control or not. But after a child is conceived no woman has a right to murder!
Where is the God-given maternal instinct today? It is crushed under the feet of the feminine self hell-bent on taking instead of giving. Hence Mother Teresa observed, "You are a destroyed nation. When you start killing your own children, what is left to destroy?"
The Proverbs 31 woman has children. "Her children rise up and call her blessed!" (v. 38).
The most God-like act of which one is capable is parenthood: to create with God, to love with God, to train with God, to suffer and sacrifice with God, to forgive with God. The woman of Proverbs 31 is properly in the middle of all this. She is a nurturer, clothing (v. 21), cooking (v. 15), training (vv. 2-5), and even helping a son find a suitable wife (v. 10).
She's not ingrown nor "cocooned" with just her family. Verse 20 speaks of her helping the poor. She is kind (v. 26). And she is even an economic force in the city, selling girdles, planting fields, and selling real estate (vv. 16, 24).
Yes, there are givers and takers. But our holy madam is a giver. She loves herself. But she also loves her neighbor.
Characteristics
Let us now examine her characteristics.
Verses 10-31 extol her as a commendable wife and mother, family-centered, industrious, self-disciplined, orderly, a shrewd businesswoman, refined of taste, manifesting grace and hospitality, charitable with the needy, deeply respectful of God. Wow! What a mouthful!
A divorce lawyer recently figured out the monetary value of a homemaker. A woman in such a role is chauffeur, gardener, family counselor, nanny, cleaning woman, bookkeeper, seamstress, cook, dishwasher, nurse, tutor, and more. This attorney calculated 40,823.64 dollars a year, or 785.07 dollars a week. Indeed, the value of a good wife has long been known. Verse 10 says she is "more precious than rubies."
I like the cartoon of a boy looking at his mom's wedding picture and asking, "Is that the day you came to work for us?" Yes, ladies, it starts when you sink into his arms! It ends with your arms in the sink.
But notice carefully. The Proverbs 31 lady is not motivated by pay. Nor is she afraid of her husband. Why does she get up so early to cook? Why does she stay up late sewing? Verse 30 says she fears God. She is awed by the Almighty. He is her motivation.
Isn't it interesting that she trusts in God. So she takes on God's characteristics. Verses 11-12 say of her, "The heart of her husband trusts in her. She does him good all the days of her life."
If your oven worked nine out of ten times, would you have it? If your car worked every day but Fridays would you keep it? Of course not! And our empress of the domestic scene, Mrs. Proverbs 31, is steadfast. She is so daily. There is no lapse in her.
Not all women are like this. Proverbs 12:4 says, "A good wife is the crown of her husband. But she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones."
The interesting thing about trusting God is that it makes us trustworthy. The "fruit of the Spirit is ... faithfulness" (Galatians 5). And this trust also leads us to trust others. Note in the text how this woman does it all. She delegates. "She provides tasks for her maidens" (v. 15). She gives responsibility away, to her children and to her helpers.
She's not cynical. She believes in God and his people.
Conclusion
Reduce this laudable woman to her basics in attitude, action, and characteristics and you get someone living the great commandment. She loves God, and she loves her neighbor as herself (Mark 12:28-31).
And how important are such mothers? A few years ago my wife was out shopping. I was home with my three children. My middle son, age twelve, walked in, saw mom was missing, and said, "Where is everybody?"
Where are the mothers of this generation? Where are those givers who'll love God, self, husband, children, and town?
Will you ask God to make you such a woman? For indeed, such feminine ideals are not made of earthly strivings. They are built by the divine!
