Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.--Mother Theresa

Thinking a little on the whole "excellent wife, who can find?" concept here:

Other translations use the term virtuous instead of excellence, which makes sense. I like Plato's definition of virtue as the ability of a thing (or person) to act according to its purpose.

Augustine has a similar thought: "Virtue," he says, "is good habit consonant with our nature.

The delight of these definitions is their variable scale. Applicable to our Chief End as creations of the King and Ruler of the Universe. Applicable to our positions in the various relationships we hold. Applicable to the mission statement of the school or company we work for. And applicable to our "to-do list" for a Saturday morning.

My current struggle is excellence in the workplace and excellence in the home. Right now I am called to both, so it's easy for me to allow one to excuse the other. And many of my daily tasks seem so small, so mundane, so unworthy of excellence. So exhausting...

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Matthew 25:21 NIV

Exodus 15:2 - The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him. (NKJV)

I pray that I will remember the small things and rely on the Lord's redemptive strength to attend them.

Plato also said that virtue (or excellence) cannot be taught. I agree. I believe it is Given to us from the Father who sees all things and will reward us according to His perfect Will.

Oh, that I will remember this tomorrow in my cubicle and at my kitchen sink!

Monthly Challenge I: July

So if anyone still visits this little blog, the challenge returns, this time in month-long installments for smoother continuity and better prizes! Also I'd like to dedicate each month to a single verse or two, with a few of the regular staples. We'll start with verse 10 (I'm using the New American Standard, so my challenge will be related to that vocabulary):

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.

And for the Month of July:

1. Memorize the above verse.

2. Spend time in prayer pondering the excellence in our own lives. Are we women of excellence? What talents/gifts has God given us? Are we using them in an excellent manner? How would our husbands, families, friends, colleagues, and neighbors describe us--as women of excellence or women of stress? A journal will help to meditate on this. As we discover those areas which require excellence, repent and ask for the strength needed to become women of excellence. Try to focus on one specific area in need of more excellence (the home, the workplace, the family/church/friends/roommate/neighbor relationships, the ministry, etc.)

3. When we decide on an area, come up with a few goals for the month to heighten the excellence in this area. Write them down somewhere (on this blog if you want!) and keep track of them during the month.

4. Have 3 conversations with other Christian women about what it means to be an excellent wife/woman--bonus points for mentioning the verse.

5. Greet 10 sunrises--use the early morning time well.

6. Exercise 10 times for 30 minutes.

7. Memorize one Psalm.

8. Serve 3 beautiful meals for your family/roommate/friends--bonus points for inviting strangers.

9. Visit one sick person.

10. Make sure your home looks like a home of excellence. And share how/what you did!

Complete the Challenge by August 1, and send an email to proverbs31challenge@yahoo.com for your name to be entered in a drawing for a Barnes & Noble gift certificate! To God be the glory.

The Centrality of Repentance

I recently participated in a Sunday School class on another extrememly challenging picture of womanhood (II Timothy 5.9) in addition to reading a great series on the Good Works of Christian women at Girl Talk on the same text. Our Sunday school teacher noted that the best place to begin in striving for godliness (male & female) is not to "gut it out," but to begin with repentance.

I hope these little challenges will not simply be a matter of conquering tasks and pegging up accomplishments, but will be used in our relationships with the Father to highlight life & relational areas in need of repentance.

Challenge VII

So sorry about the lack of challenge this week--a travel weekend followed by a bout of flu put me a little behind.
But it's not too late to finish well!
So for the next 3.5 days until Saturday, 13 May:
1. Say 5 encouraging things to others around you each day (verse 26). Consider the difference between encouragement and flattery. Consider that the Proverbs 31 woman is kind AND wise.
2. Memorize Proverbs 31.10-12 (verse 26)
3. Prepare at least one fabulous meal for your family/roommates/friends. During the meal, work on contributing to a wise and kind conversation (verse 26).
If you complete the challenge, send an email to proverbs31challenge@yahoo.com or let us know here! To God be the glory.

More Updates and Collaboration

For the past two weeks, no one (self included) has completed the challenge. That is, I think, largely due to the way many of us operate, with the tendency to go hard at something for a short period of time, then quickly lapse back into old habits. I have very legitimate reasons every week for not completing the challenge from school responsibilities to activities that come up just when I'm about to do a "challenge related task."

Another very legitimate reason to leave off from the challenge altogether is that it can be interpreted as legalistic or a source of personal pride. If we start working hard at feminine godliness to gain a better self-opinion, we will of course be disappointed. The challenge is an effort to make room in one's life for serious time with God and obedience to His word in proactive ways.

So this week's challenge will be slightly different, but with more of an emphasis on what was mentioned above: serious time with God and obedience to His word in proactive ways. No prize this week, again it has been given to us.

And without further ado,

For the Week of 1-5 May:
1. Greet the sun 4 times, making sure to use the early morning hours for time with the Lord. (15, 30)
2. Memorize one Scripture verse and share it with another person for encouragement.(12, 26)
3. Consider aspects of your life that would fit into the category of "idleness." Work on elminating one way that you engage in idleness, asking God to replace it with something that glorifies Him (there are lots of suggestions for activities throughout the Proverb). (27)

Please share here or in email (proverbs31challenge@yahoo.com) whether you have completed the challenge and ways that you completed it and I will post your name in the blog with your story as well. May the Lord bless us in this endeavor.

Challenge V

For the Week of 24-29 April

1. 3 More Sunrises (verse 15)!
2. Serve a nice breakfast for your husband, roommate, family, or friends (verse 15).
3. Do one act of kindness for someone who is suffering (verse 20)
4. Exercise vigorously 3X for thirty minutes (verse 17)
5. Memorize 3 Scriptures (verse 26)

Complete the challenge by Saturday, 29 April, send an email to proverbs31challenge@yahoo.com saying you have done so, and your name will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God. Hopefully more of us will complete the challenge this week--press on!

John Angell James on Female Piety

And where in all the range of inspired or uninspired literature can be found a delineation of female excellence—I will not say equal to, but worthy to be compared with—that which forms the subject of the present chapter? We have in it a picture of which it is difficult to say which is the most striking—the correctness of the drawing—or the richness of the coloring. Both display a master's hand, and though delineated three thousand years ago, it is still true to nature; and when we have removed some of the effects of time, retouched some lines that have been clouded and obscured by the lapse of years, and given a few explanations, it is impossible to look at it without admiration and delight. It adds to the interest to know that it is the production of a female artist. It is the description of a good wife, drawn by the hand of a mother, to guide her son in the selection of a companion for life. They are "the words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him." Who this king was is a matter of uncertainty. He was not, as some have supposed, Solomon. The original Hebrew has many Chaldaisms, which are found in no other part of the book of Proverbs, and afford a cogent argument that it was written by another hand, and perhaps after the captivity. The whole passage is composed with art, being a kind of poem containing twenty-two verses respectively beginning, like some of the Psalms, with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their order of succession. Whoever Lemuel might have been, he had the privilege of a most eminent mother.

"The admonitory verses with which the chapter commences, composed by this distinguished woman for her son when in the flower of youth and high expectation, are an inimitable production, as well in respect to their actual materials, as the delicacy with which they are selected. Instead of attempting to lay down rules concerning matters of state and political government, the illustrious writer confines herself, with the finest and most becoming art, to a recommendation of the gentler virtues of temperance, benevolence, and mercy; and to a minute and unparalleled delineation of the female character which might bid fairest to promote the happiness of her son in wedded life."

What a pattern of maternal excellence was this mother of the king! We may well imagine that in this inimitable portrait, she drew her own likeness. What sons we would see, if all were blessed with such mothers as she was!

James offers a vivid exposition of Proverbs 31 as part of his larger Christian classic, Female Piety.