My Thoughts Regarding the Proverbs 31 Movement

Several friends of mine have brought to my attention the Proverbs 31 Movement.  Perhaps you may have seen the logo on Pinterest of Facebook.  Anyhow a wonderful blogger I follow, named Preston, stirred things up a bit as he very humbly and biblically corrected the movement.  You can see one out of the three posts he published here.

 (While you're there I recommend following his blog and checking out some of the other posts--great stuff!)

Anyhow, I have studied Proverbs 31 on my own lately and this is what the Word tells me.

First of all, Proverbs 25-31 were written specifically as advice for leaders.  Proverbs 31 is wisdom King Lemuel has learned from his mother.  The first 9 verses have very good points such as:

• Watch out for adulterous women
• Don't get drunk on wine
• Defend the poor and weak

The next verses (10-31) are the infamous "Proverbs 31 Woman" that we all have come to love or hate.  Something I learned while studying this chapter appealed to me as very interesting.  Verses 10-31 are an acrostic, meaning each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  We use acrostics for all sorts of cutsie little things now.  I'm not totally sure if the acrostic was used for the same types of things back then or not, but an example can be found in the picture to the right.

While the common misconception is that the Proverbs 31 Woman is an example we are all supposed to follow word for word, this is false.  As Preston stated, there are many other noble women in the bible worth following who don't meet the P31W standards.  (I'm pretty sure that just affirms their human citizenship.)

Some theologians even suspect the passage is a picture of womanhood altogether, not just one single woman.  This makes sense because how many women do you know who are a manufacturer, farmer, seamstress, merchant, wife, and mother, who never sleep?  If you answered yes, this woman might be a robot.

Anyhow, as with every point ever made in the Bible, we can always draw it back to our two main commandments as Christians.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind first.  Then, love your neighbor as yourself.  (Matthew 22:37-40)

As verse 30 touches on, what makes this woman beautiful is not her talents, careers, and style, but her deeply fearing heart for the Lord.  Our overall goal as Christians is not to maintain a superb standard, or to outserve everyone else.  Our goal is not to imitate the P31W,  nor Ester, nor Sarah, nor any other woman in the bible.  

No, our goal as Christian women is to imitate Christ and let him mold us and shape us into the life-long sanctification process of becoming women of God, who love the Lord with gladness and strive to give him glory, honor, and praise everyday of our lives because our hearts are so broken before him.  Our goal is to live and love in true humility that comes from knowing and receiving the gospel of Christ which we did not even deserve in the first place.  

(Ephesians 5:1, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Romans 6:18) 

This is what the P31W is pointing us to, a life lived in reverence to Christ.  If you try to do all that she does in your own strength you will fail.  Not only that, but you will be running around like a chicken with your head cut off, ignoring all the real important things in life because you are busy worrying about your next sale or investment.  This is not at all how Jesus calls us to live. 

(Ephesians 5:2, Luke 10:38-42, Matthew 6:33, Psalm 28:7)

So my goal for you today is this: seek to imitate Christ above all else.  Love him with every part of your heart, even the parts you don't want anyone else to see.  Love him until it hurts.

Completely to You

So what can I say? 
What can I do? 
But offer this heart O God 
Completely to You

This is a beautiful song by Hillsong United entitled The Stand.  As I was getting ready for church yesterday morning I was listening to Air1 when this song came on.  The snippet above is what hit me.  It captured my life at that very moment and God spoke through it.

After an intense weekend full of God-thoughts, worship services, and the emotions of life shared with friends, I realize just how easy it is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and forget about the one thing that really matters.

As humans, we worship by design.  What we worship is specific to each individual.  The receiver of our worship can range anywhere from sports to boyfriends, music to backpacks, and Star Wars to baking.  None of these things are bad in and of themselves, however the Bible says anything we worship more than God is an idol, and idolatry is a sin.  (Luckily we already knew we were sinners and God has already taken care of that for those who ask!)

For biblical reference:

• Exodus 20:3-4 “You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneat or in the waters below.”
• Matthew 4:10 “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
• Matthew 22:37-38 “Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and the greatest commandment.”

Something I hadn’t thought much about until recently, is that even ministry can be an idol if our motives are wrong.  An example of this would be a youth pastor obsessing over how many kids are coming, what they are going to eat, how to get them to listen to the gospel, etc. rather than focusing on God, what he wants for the children, and asking Him to use the event to glorify himself. 

This isn’t cold hard fact, just an opinion, but I think girls are more vulnerable to making people our idols, whereas men are more vulnerable to making things their idols. 

For most women, idolatry easily creeps in to our relationships because of the Genesis 3:16 curse.  Our desire is for relationships, and more specifically our husband.  How many girls do you know that check their phone every 5 seconds waiting for that guy to text them?  Or what about the women who are so starved for love (like many of us) that they reach out for whatever male figure they can cling to.

We all have idols in our hearts.  This week I was convicted about chasing God’s plan more than God himself.  In high school one of my big idols was popularity and acceptance from other people.  But what’s your idol?  What are you not letting God control in your life?  Is there something you deem as more important than the creator of the universe?  Something coming in between you and your walk with God?  Take some time to examine your heart today and lay down any idols you might have.  Let God be God. J he does have it figured out ya know!

For a great bible study on idols I recommend: No Other Gods by Kelly Minter

Alisson's Story-2

(Continuing from Alisson's Story)

...The next morning I woke up in a major state of confusion. What was  God’s will? Tate wasn’t a bad guy and he had actually rededicated his life this past year. Why wasn’t he the one for me?  Can I still date him? How do you know what God’s will is??

I went to Julie and we discussed it some more and she suggested I talk to her discipler, Mandy. So Julie gave her my number and within a few hours I was talking to Mandy! We talked and I told her about Tate and I asked her what a spiritual leader looked like for a guy? She started thinking and came to the conclusion that there wasn’t a specific answer to this question, but she said, “First and foremost, you want a guy who loves God with all his heart.”  Then she gave me some great words of wisdom and told me to boldly pray to God, asking him to show me if Tate was the guy God picked out for me or not.  I prayed that if he was the right guy things would continue to be good between us, and if he wasn’t, I asked that the door would slam shut on our relationship!

                               (read more tomorrow!)

Maybe you have been unsure/uneasy about your own relationship lately.  Perhaps you should take that bold step by praying that God would slam the door shut if it is not his will.  After all, if God's not in it, it won't last anyways right?

Proverbs 16:9

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

Proverbs 20:24

"A man's steps are directed by the Lord.  How then can anyone understand his own way?"

This is Love. Part 1

(Continuing from This is Lust...)

Love is the opposite!  Love can only come from God, and love is God!  Seek God and find love. Seek love and find God. J
Let's take a look at a very special verse I found last week.  What better place to study love than the book of Song of Songs!  If you are a romance reader or love guru, check out this entire book sometime for a good read!

Song of Songs 8:6-7

“Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.

Many waters cannot quench love;rivers cannot wash it away.
  If one were to give

all the wealth of this house for love,
 it would be utterly scorned.”

This verse is so beautiful, so powerful, and so full of knowledge about love.  Take a look at the first part, “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm…”  The author is begging God to not just love him, but to place a seal over His heart and around his arm, showing that he was God’s and God was his.  I think of this “seal” like a wedding ring.  A man gives a woman a wedding ring for 2 reasons. 1) to show her that he is hers and she is his for life.  It’s a daily reminder of their love for one another. 2) to show other men that her heart has already been taken by another man.

Some girls wear purity rings to show that their purity has been given to God’s will, which means they are waiting until marriage to have sex.  What a beautiful promise to wear on your finger every day; the promise of love and fulfillment in a long term goal.

 I see lots of students my age wear necklaces with special meanings.  The ministry I’m involved in has a joke about wearing your “Jesus necklace” to show that you are a Christian.  This is just a joke that came up because we noticed almost all of us happen to wear necklaces with a cross of some sort on them.  My Catholic friends wear a rosary around their neck.  People who have lost loved ones sometimes wear a memorial necklace.  High school girls wear their sweetheart’s ring around their neck.  The examples are endless.

So why do we wear special things around our arms, fingers, or neck?  I can’t tell you the exact answer, but it seems to be a special place for people or things we love.  The bible talks extensively about seals and metaphorically hanging things around your neck.  2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his…’”  Even God seals things with inscriptions.  It’s a sign of permanent importance, love, remembrance.  It is a covenant, or a promise.

So what’s the seal over your heart?  Is it God?  Your boyfriend?  A hobby?  A talent, maybe basketball or volleyball?  Do you put these things above your love for God?  I know it’s “just jewelry” to many of us, but think about it…what you put around your neck everyday really does say something about you.

Also, have you ever asked God to place you as a seal over his heart?  What about around his arm?  Do you want God to love you like that?  What are you afraid of?  Allow him to love you and consume your heart with His love, I promise you won’t regret it.

Samson's Consequences

So I was going to call this post “Samson’s Second Mistake,” but then I realized I am kind of out of order with the story.  The real order of these posts should be like this:

Samson’s First Mistake
"Should I tell my boyfriend everything??"
This one. (Samson's Consequences)

Sorry for my silly confusion!  Anyhow, continuing from yesterday’s post, we know that Samson ignored the warning signs that Delilah was trying to kill him and decided to stay with her because he was “in love.”  This was his first mistake.

His second mistake was talked about in "Should I tell my boyfriend everything??"  I discussed how serious of a mistake it was for Samson to tell Delilah “all that was within his heart.”  I didn’t however discuss the consequences he faced because of that action.

Going back a step
In Judges 16, Samson finally breaks down and tells Delilah his strength is in his hair.  This was both a mistake of pride and a mistake of sharing too much of his heart.  Pride because he had the idea in his head that he was indestructible and telling a woman his weakness wouldn’t hurt him any.  How wrong he was. 

This was also a mistake of sharing too much of his heart, and we know that because Proverbs 4:23 and Micah 7:5-7 tells us that there are parts of our hearts reserved for God alone. (Read "Should I tell my boyfriend everything??" for more information.)

What happened?
So Samson makes the mistake of telling Delilah his weakness.  Of course, she calls her Philistine buddies in to test the theory—lo and behold it worked!  She woke him up saying, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”  He awoke and tried to rise and fight, but verse 20 says “But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”

Ouch.  Do you know what it feels like to have God leave you?  Did you blame God?  Get mad at him?  Scream to his face?

Or 

Did you stop and think, "where did I push him away?"  When did my pride step in and start taking control?  What did I do to disobey my heavenly father?

Taking the second approach can lead you back to God, repentance, and life.  This is a humble man’s attitude towards God, realizing that He his sovereign over all and we are mere humans who screw everything up when not in God’s perfect and pleasing will.

The first choice, however, can lead you to depression, destruction, and ultimately death.

Samson’s Choice
If you go back and look at the first part of "Should I tell my boyfriend everything??" I briefly discussed Samson’s arrogant personality.  Because he was very cocky and powerful, do you think he chose the first choice of hating God, or do you think he chose the humble man’s approach?

Sadly enough, Samson through a pity party instead of humbling himself.  After his head had been shaved and his strength (God) had left him, the Philistines wanted him to come entertain them; so he did.  He entered the arena with rage and hatred, screaming to God, “Please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Then Samson reached up and grabbed two pillars holding up the temple and pushed them up so that everything came falling down, crushing him and many others.

More Consequences…
Then the bible says, “Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.”  Basically he committed suicide and killed more people by doing that than he had while he was alive (which was a lot considering he won many battles.) 

I think suicidal thoughts creep in when we focus too much on ourselves.  Like Samson, we struggle with pride and often try to make all things about us, rather than God.  Suffering: for example. So a loved one dies, our natural tendency is to throw a poor me party and cry, blame God, become depressed, and eventually talk ourselves into possible suicide.  This is not at all God’s plan.

Even death and suffering is not about us.  If we make it about us the outcome will most definitely be miserable like Samson’s story proved.  And we will also negatively affect more people than almost anything else.

On the Contrary
On the flip side, if we chose to live our lives for something far greater than ourselves or any human establishment, we will see the hope, love, and mercy that God has shown us all.  Therefore rejoicing in his grace and passing it on to others, sharing the joy of true life with them.  Do you see now why God wants the best for you?  Do you see how he wants to include you in his wonderful plan?

What are you mad about?  What have you blamed God for that has been hurting you?  Perhaps you need to spend some time sharing that hurt and pain with God and letting him know how you feel.  Then lay down “you.”  Turn upward and focus on God.  Ask him to show you HIS great plan over yours. Tell him to show you how life focused on Him is far better than life focused on you.

Another Girl's Story on God's Fulfillment

Hey girls! 1 week ago I posted "Marriage Longings and God's Fulfillments," based on and idea I read in Lady in Waiting. Well soon after that post I found out one of my dearest friends had just recently made her own list of her desires and how God could fulfill them. So I thought it would be neat if she shared her list, and here it is! :)

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My heart is His because He rejoices over me! He pursues me with every part of Him and desires only the best for me! I know without a shadow of a doubt I can place my heart in His hands and He will protect it and care for it like no one else I know! :) Thank you Jesus!

(Isaiah 62:5)

Hello ladies!
So Haley asked me to show you girls my list! ☺
Its actually very interesting that I am doing this because I realized tonight that where I thought I had been guarding my heart I was really just letting it go! SO!!! This is the list I made for the current guy I have let have a piece of my heart! (let me state that by worlds standards I didn’t give him any of my heart… spiritually or God’s standard… possibly!)

The list!
Boy:
o How he cares about other people
o How he seeks after the Lord and the Lord’s heart
o He is easy to talk to and I am comfortable around him
o Superficially- he gives good hugs! ☺
o He is fun to be around
o He cares about me

God:
o God created everybody and loves each person to the utmost!
o The Lord is the one he is seeking— am I seeking the Lord the way I should be, especially in this?
o Jesus knows my heart and there is nothing that will ever change the love he has for me
o Jesus holds my heart—which is much better than any hug!
o Jesus is the ultimate Joy giver
o Jesus cares not for me not only when I am being happy and joyful but even when I am shaking in fear or balling my eyes out over the same old thing! (pst…. Idk if you know this but the Lord is patient!)

Now by no means am I “hating” on this guy! He is one of my best guy friends and I would never look down upon him! But as a girl I have to remember who created him and His heart… that would be the Lord! Why be seeking out a relationship with someone when I already have the best one I could ask for! ☺

What's on your list? Have you made one?