An Excellent Model

For Monday, April 21, 2008
Proverbs 31:10-12

An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.

Proverbs, which presents lesson after lesson about the way of wisdom and righteousness, closes by presenting the example of a wife living such a way. She embodies the attributes of wisdom, also depicted as a woman in chapters 3, 8, and 9. As wisdom is declared to be more precious than jewels in 3:15, so is an excellent wife. As a man may trust in wisdom and profit from her, knowing that good comes from her, so a husband may trust the wise and righteous wife.

Many women are praised for their appearance, and, indeed, many men choose wives for that reason alone. But it is the inner spirit that she possesses which is of true worth, as this chapter will show. And the excellent wife serves as a model for us all - male or female, married or single. For it is God's purpose that we all be "excellent." We all should be such persons who can be trusted, who do good all our days.

May there be those who know us who can say, "An excellent wife/husband/parent/ friend/boss/teacher/coach - whatever our status - may we be praised because we have taken the proverbs we have read and applied them to our lives.