The Proverbial Wife

Proverbs 31:25-30

"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.' Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

I remember when I first got married. I made a cross-stitch needlepoint of this verse. I did all the measuring, designing, etc... to get it to fit just right in a 8x10 picture frame. The Proverbial Wife was what I desired to be. Yet somehow, in the rush of working and raising a family, the most important goal of motherhood and being a wife I misplaced along the way. I got so busy thinking of all the "school" things I had to do as a mom, and all the "worldly" things that you begin to thing that being a wife requires, and the most important piece of the puzzle - the piece that makes the whole picture clear - got dropped through the cracks.

But the path that we follow is marked along the way, and the markings that I have followed lately have brought me back, not to the beginning, but they have brought me back to the place where I longed to be. I have looked and He has showed me that his touch is in this world. You just have to look to see the work that He has done, to look and see what prayers He has answered. I can still be the wife and mother that my children and husband deserve, and the wife and mother that He has laid the path for me to become. All I have to do is lean on His word, "delight myself in the Lord" and that He will give me the Desires that I crave. Psalms 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

I will never be perfect. I will do the best that I am humanly capable of doing for my family - my husband and children - and the rest I will lay at His feet. I will have Faith in Him that he will do what is best for our family. It all seems so simple, but yet after 13 years I am still trying, still not even close to becoming that Proverbial Wife...