The Unattainable?
Meg
I’ve always viewed the Proverbs 31 wife as an unattainable ideal. I mean, someone that perfect doesn’t exist, right? A modern girl like myself doesn’t have time to weave our family's clothes and blankets. That seems like a lot of work to me! Especially when there are perfectly respectable department stores nearby. But as I read through Proverbs 31 tonight, I was struck by one verse in particular. This verse is not so much a description of what this wife does, but more so how she reacts to life itself:
“Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come” (vs. 25, HCSB).
What a beautiful description of a beautiful wife!
Looking back at this past year, filled with loneliness, fear, and long times of separation, these were the very attributes I was striving for. Military wives often learn to be strong the hard way. Situations are placed in their paths, things they never truly want to face, but they’re forced to meet them head on. And so, they either wither, or they reach out and grasp onto to hope, to the outcome. For me, I wouldn’t have had any strength at all without my Savior. I held onto Him each and every day of the deployment. I turned to Him for wisdom and insight. I turned to Him, and asked Him for joy, even on the hardest of days. And in response, He gave me that joy. That peace. That ability to laugh, even on the harder days. Even now, with the deployment behind us, I still lean on Him. I still seek His wisdom, His joy in the midst of everyday life.
Perhaps the secret of the Proverbs 31 Wife isn’t that she’s perfect. No, perhaps she was never meant to achieve it all on her own. She could never meet the daunting tasks of each new day. Instead, she needed a Savior to lean on, someone to trust in, someone who would give her wisdom and understanding, and someone who would strengthen her and uphold her. We military wives are of a tough stock. We know what it’s like to truly be lonely, to truly feel worried, and to truly be sad. So who better than we to know how much we’re in need of a Savior? We’re strong, but only so strong without Him by our side.