Proverbs 31:10-15, “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.”
I was thinking today of a Christian woman I knew many years ago, whose frustrated husband often scolded her for handing him food our of a can. The man worked fulltime as the sole financial provider of the family. The couple had a few children. The woman stayed and labored at home raising the children as a homemaker. This was before the internet came along, back in the 1970's and 1980's. I remember how frustrated that man was, because his wife refused to cook him homemade meals. She had numerous cookbooks, but for whatever reason she didn't want to make homemade meals for her family. I recall myself as a small child hearing the married couple argue quiet frequently, as the man expressed his grief that his wife kept preparing meals out of a can, instead of making him something homemade.
Dear reader, I am not judging that married couple, God forbid. We all have skeleton closets! We all have areas of weakness in our personal character in our life. It is not my place nor right to judge. Yet, we are now living in very different times today. With the reality of the internet becoming public since the mid 1990s, we all have a massive incredible helpful resource at our fingertips. Although the internet was first invented for the military in the 1960's, it has become a wonderful blessing nowadays. Of course, like all technology, the internet is a double-edged sword, serving both good and bad purposes, depending on the individual using it.
Ladies, NO ONE has any excuse in this modern technological world not to excel as a Proverbs 31 woman! Granted, being a godly feminine woman with a caring and responsible heart requires much more than a mere internet connection and a computer. However, as far as preparing homemade delicious meals goes, no wife or mother has any good excuses not to become an excellent chef for her beloved family who depend upon her. I feel sorry for the husband and children who regularly eat TV dinners out of a microwave and delivery pizza. I am all for eating these foods, and I think families should. One of the very fondest memories I have as a child and teenager growing up is when my parents regularly ordered pizzas. They'd usually order breaded mushrooms, lasagna, a large cheese and sausage pizza, baked clams, French fries and other delicacies. I LOVED IT!!!
But in particular ladies, your hubby needs and deserves to eat a good homecooked meal a couple times each week, something special. When a man works all day or night at the job, and then comes home tired, just to have food from a can dumped on a plate and handed to him, SHAME on that wife!!! It doesn't take an unreasonable amount of time to prepare savory roasted lamb chops with baked seasoned red potatoes. Even better, YouTube contains millions of homemade delicious recipes and tips. As a child, every Thanksgiving Day turkey that any woman I ever knew baked was DRY as the Sahara Desert!!! If you didn't have some kind of gravy to moisten the turkey, you risked choking to death! I learned many years ago a beautiful little trick, which is to BAKE THE TURKEY UPSIDE DOWN!!! If you bake it upside down, and then when finished serve it ringside up, it will be the juiciest and most delicious turkey you've ever eaten! Your family and guests will be so impressed! I guarantee it!
How did I learn that nifty little trick? I simply went on the internet looking for “grandma's favorite recipes.” I searched for “secret family recipes.” You'll be amazed at what you find and your family will enjoy the best cooking on earth!!! I challenge you dear reader, especially you ladies, to make use of the internet to become the best you can be by God's grace! You'll find everything on YouTube from how to repair your own car, setting your clock in your vehicle, recipes step-by-step, how to use household gadgets that you buy, to just about anything you can imagine. A Proverbs 31 Woman is a hard-working Christian woman, who desires to make the best of her life for the benefit of her loved ones and community.
The main thing that hinders people from becoming better versions of themselves is a woeful lack of desire and ambition to excel. I admire families who grow and pickle their own garden's cucumbers, make their own homemade sausage, make your own homemade ice-cream, et cetera. You can learn it all online! I am not saying that you have to spend zillions of dollars and pressure yourself to do things you don't want to do. But IU am saying that every normal person ought to have personal interests, hobbies and a desire to enjoy life.
Use those things to include your children and make it a family event. You'll be creating memories. Children desperately need and want to make good memories, which they will carry with them a lifetime. I am so very thankful to God for all the precious childhood memories that I have of going each summer to the Wisconsin State Fair. I cherish the 4th of July each summer (my favorite holiday as a child) and all the cool BOXES of fireworks that I raked leaves, shoveled snow, walked a dog and had dozens of lemonade stands each summer, to pay for fireworks and video games throughout the year. I had a great childhood!!! My father bought me my first Atari video game in 1977 for my birthday, and then I worked hard all year to purchase several dozen video games for it. I had the popular games: Canyon Bomber, Indy 500, Combat, Command Control, Breakout, Space Invaders, you name it! It was a joyous experience to have my Atari system that I cannot convey in mortal words. God is so good!
If you are a parent with children, savor and enjoy every precious moment, because they'll grow up virtually overnight. I cannot believe that my son is now 32 years old. It seems like just yesterday that he was collecting catchup packets as a kid. It seems like just yesterday that we were messing around in the garage with C++ computer language while he was in high school. That's the computer language that nearly all the video games were made of, so if you wanted to learn how to make your own video games, you needed to learn C++. Spend time with your kids folks! They'll grow up too fast, I assure you.
Also, God forbid, they might be killed in an accident if they get hit by a car, or you might be killed prematurely, et cetera, so love your family each day while you still can. That holds true for all the people in your life!!! Life comes with no guarantees, except that we all have to pay taxes, we all get sick sometimes and we'll all eventually die someday. I don't know who you are or what your life is like dear friend, but I encourage you to use the internet and make the best of the time that you have left here on earth.
Every moment is a second chance from God! Today is literally the first day of the rest of your life. 1st Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” If you are a redeemed child of God (as I thankfully am by God's wondrous saving grace), then lay hold on your eternal life and LIVE LIKE THERE IS A TOMORROW!!!
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