Recipes and Proverbs 31

So, some friends and I were on F@cebook the other day.  The discussion started around menus.... what was everyone fixing for their family for the week.  Sometimes, it's hard to come up with different options for your family, and as hard as you try, you can't think of new things on your own... so you stay with the tried and true (aka - eventually boring!).  So, Rebekka posted her menu plan for the week.  We all chimed in and started talking about how we need to share our menu plans so we can all have new ideas to share with our family.  Then came the idea that not only do we need to share our menu plans, but obviously if there is something on there that we like, we will want to know how to make it, so we will need to share our recipes too.  I was ALL about that.  So, I asked if we could start a blog - AND WE DID.  


Rebekka set up the blog (I had volunteered to, but didn't know how to set it up where multiple people could be contributors - she did - THANKS REBEKKA) and named it Proverbs 31 Cook .  What a great name - I mean, ideally, isn't the Proverbs woman what we all want to be?  What we all should aim to achieve?


We just set up the blog, but there are already a bunch of recipes on there, and I'm hoping the catalog of recipes becomes HUGE.  I dream of holidays where we all put our favorite cookie recipes on there, or treats for hot summer days... whatever - just a place where we can all meet, share and provide a larger variety of good, home cooked meals for our families.


But then I got to thinking.... for me at least, maybe it should be more than just a blog - more than just a place where I can go get recipes for my family.  I felt convicted that for me, it needed to be something more.  So, I opened up Proverbs 31 - and read the section on "The Wife of Noble Character".  Ok - this woman does EVERYTHING!!!  She has like 120 hours in a day, she cooks, cleans, sews, sells, serves others, grows her own food, does the laundry, mends clothes, makes comforters, knits, takes care of her children - oh yeah, and about her children - they arise and call her blesses and they praise her - her husband also.


Now mind you, I'm not mocking the bible.  NOT.  AT.  ALL!  I don't think that what the bible was writing about with regard to this Wife of Noble Character - was something that this wife does every day.  One woman may not even do all of these things.  I think that this is just something that women should strive to do.  Maybe they can't master everything, but women can master not being idle.  And when you master not having idle hands, then you learn so much more about what you CAN do!


So, what started out as a way to share recipes and menu planning has now become a personal bible study for me.  I'm going to delve into the qualities of this "Woman of Noble Character" and see what can be done, in my life, to make me just a bit more like her.  I know I can't do it all, but there are changes that I CAN make and as I slowly take apart the traits of this woman, I may learn something about myself that needs to be changed.  


So, that being said - if you are offended by the idea of how women are portrayed in the bible, then you might not like my posts for awhile, because I'm going to start writing weekly about what I have learned about this woman.  I'm going to make changes in my life, where necessary, to achieve more of what GOD wants me to look like, rather than what I or the WORLD want me to look like.  Some look at the woman portrayed in this passage as "domesticated".  She is pretty much a servant to her family.  I don't think this is the case at all.  She is a CRITICAL part of the success of her family, of the stability of her family.  She is a woman with many talents.  It will be interesting to see how God prompts me to change my life, my habits through this study.


I'll start on Monday - the first verse I'll be looking at (and I'll just take them apart, in order, in chunks that are good for me to swallow) is as follows:


Proverbs 31: 10-11 
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.


That will be the verses that I will meditate on this week.  I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about it and plenty of examples of how I can modify my ways to greater glorify God through what I do in my home!


In Christ,
Charity