Bible Study: week one

My friend Amy Bayliss wrote a 10- week Bible Study that really caught my attention, based on Proverbs 31. I invite you to join us for this study as I post my thoughts here as well.

Week one: Shattering the Myths

Well, this study started out with a bang for me. I had absolutely never before read that it was believed that the author of "The Wife of noble character" in Proverbs 31 was Bathsheba or that the woman she describes is not an actual woman, but a description of her wishes and desires for her son.

Of course I had to do a little research on my own to find out more about this eye opening revelation. Here is what I found:

Bible Track
The perfect wife
Bathsheba: Finding Faith after failure

• List three things about Bathsheba that stand out to you.

She was an adulteress
Helped her son Solomon become King
She took her sin, turned it around, and was blessed

• Questions to ponder: What is the one verse in Proverbs 31:11-28 that you would most like to accomplish?
  

Proverbs 31:28 speaks to me the most.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her

I feel that my children are my legacy on this earth. I would want them to look back on me with pride and to feel that I taught them well. To know that I loved them and desired the best for them. I often tell my children that I'm so glad that God let me be their mother. I would really like them to feel the same way. If my children can look back on their time with me and say, "Our mother loved us and taught us to love and respect the Lord". I will have succeeded on earth.

Its taken me a long time to come to this point where I really only care what my children and my husband think of me. In a time when I watch marriages around me crumble, marriages that I often thought were better than mine, I would want to know that my husband was proud of me, that he cherished me, and that he was so glad that he married me---- he would praise me to others.

I have a lot of respect for my husband and so it is understandable that I would feel pride from receiving praise from someone that I regard so much.

While I still aspire to be a Proverbs 31 woman----I see it for what it is now.
A beautiful poem, something to aim for, but not something beat myself up over or feel like a failure because of.

When I read it again, knowing it is the words of a wise mother to her son, I see it clearly, and I realize that I want that for my sons too. You always want better for your children. So it is quite possible that the woman who wrote this, was not all of those things, but she wanted that for her son----better.

I strive to be better each day.
Proverbs 31 is now something to inspire me and something for me to aspire to----knowing that I may never do it all at once, and that there are things that I may never even attempt (plant a vineyard, makes linens) and that's okay.

How do you feel about Proverbs 31?