They Call Her Blessed

Proverbs 31 – The Wife of Noble Character

My husband frequently reads this scripture over me in prayer, and has been doing so for quite some time now.  At first, I experienced an anxiousness to perform, but soon I saw the truth in what he was doing—calling something out which was unseen to me.  And then there was reverence.  I was entrusted with something significant—a husband and our marriage.

One morning I was reading through the verses again for myself and couldn’t help but stop and wonder about verse 23.  It says, “Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.”  Why is it there, I thought, among all the other verses that speak of the noble character of women, of wives?  It is there, sandwiched between, “She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple,” and “She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.”

As I continued on I realized something poignant. A man is not a husband without a wife.  That seems obvious.  But he is not respected at the city gate unless he has a wife of noble character—one that brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life (verse 12).

While it seems common, being a wife is not a mundane role—not a call to be taken lightly without regard.  The verses of Proverbs 31 express these things about a wife:

She selects and works

She provides

She considers and buys

Her arms are strong for the task

She trades

She opens her arms

She extends her hands

She nurtures

She protects

She does not fear

She makes supplies

She speaks with wisdom and instructs

She watches and is not idle

They call her blessed

He, a husband, could not be who he is without his wife of noble character.

I ask myself these daily questions:  Am I cherishing my role?  Am I seeing the importance of how I care for and treat my husband?  Am I living a life of noble character?