Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. Proverbs 31:10, 11.
The happiness of the family depends much upon the wife and mother.
Let a young man seek one to stand by his side who is fitted to bear her share of life’s burdens, one whose influence will ennoble and refine him, and who will make him happy in her love.
Married life is not all romance; it has its real difficulties and its homely details. The wife must not consider herself a doll, to be tended, but a woman; one to put her shoulder under real, not imaginary, burdens, and live an understanding, thoughtful life, considering that there are other things to be thought of than herself.
A knowledge of domestic duties is beyond price to every woman. There are families without number whose happiness is wrecked by the inefficiency of the wife and mother.
Every girl should learn to take charge of the domestic affairs of home, should be a cook, a housekeeper, a seamstress. She should understand all those things which it is necessary that the mistress of a house should know.
If need be, a young woman can dispense with a knowledge of French and algebra, or even of the piano; but it is indispensable that she learn to make good bread, to fashion neatly fitting garments, and to perform efficiently the many duties that pertain to homemaking.
“A prudent wife is from the Lord.” Proverbs 19:14. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her….” “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her,” saying, “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” Proverbs 31:11, 12, 26-29. He who gains such a wife “findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.”
The Faith I Live By p. 256
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Prayer Requests
—-ARME Bible Camp begins tonight and runs through Sunday. Please keep all who attend in prayer as well as those who will be helping. Rose
Note: There will be no devotional the rest of this week as I will be helping in the children’s division.
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Dear Friends,
My grandchildren have the bad habit of tipping back in their chair. Whenever I catch them, I tell them about the time when Eileen was 7. She went to a one-room, multi-grade school in Alabama. One of the older boys in the class always seemed to be in trouble. He was not a bad boy: he just liked to make the other students laugh. He also had the bad habit of tipping back on the back legs of his chair. No matter how many times the teacher told him to keep all four chair legs on the floor, he would always tip back on just two. She told him that someday he would fall backwards, but he did not take her warning. He thought he was well capable of keeping that chair balanced and that she was being mean to him.
There is an old saying that goes, “One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” So it was in that school. This boy’s influence was beginning to show in the way the other children obeyed the teacher as well. Day by day, they became more disobedient. Eileen’s poor teacher just didn’t know what more she could do to bring the class back into line.
One day, the boy learned a valuable lesson. Somehow he tipped back just a little too far and fell backwards with a thud. He hit the back of his head very hard, yet while he was falling, he somehow hit his chin and split it open. Hurt and humiliated, he was a little more subdued after that. Seeing that the teacher’s warning was valid, the rest of the class began to respect and obey their teacher as they should.
So it is that by our influence we can bring others to Chist or turn them away from Him. Paul says, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Gal 5:9 Again, he used this illustration in a situation that was happening in the Corinthian church. They had begun to believe through the influence of one of their members that an acceptance of and belief in Jesus as their saviour gave them the license to do disobey the Commandments. Shocked that they should get this idea, Paul wrote, “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” 1 Cor 5:1-13
May our influence always be on the side of right is my prayer.
Rose

Far Above Rubies