For years, many women have been taught the Proverbs 31 meaning. But what if the meaning of the Proverbs 31 woman in westernized culture was all wrong? What if, over the centuries, the Proverbs 31 woman became the emblem of a needy 1950s housekeeper instead of the hardworking, independent, money making wife and mother that she really was? In this episode of the Choosing Simple podcast, we’re talking all about how America gets the Proverbs 31 woman completely wrong. From the myth that she should never work outside of the home, to the lie that she should be an oppressed housekeeper and wife—we’re walking through all of the things taught in many families and churches today that aren’t in the Bible at all.
Transcript of the “How America Gets the Proverbs 31 Woman Wrong” | S2 E3 of the Choosing Simple Podcast
Please remember that this is a direct transcript of the podcast episode. It has very little editing and reads very much like a regular conversation, rather than planned out like a proper manuscript. If this is bothersome, I highly recommend you just listen to the episode, linked above.
Thank you for joining me, once again, on this episode of the Choosing Simple podcast. In full transparency, I want to let you know that it is about 11:00 PM on a Thursday evening, at the recording of this podcast, because my week has been incredibly challenging and I have been sitting here really wanting to do a podcast episode, and life has been crazy. I have this running list of podcast topics that I’m just kind of widdling my way through. And I’ve been wondering, what episode should I record next? And this whole entire week, the same topic came up over and over and over and over again. And so I thought, okay, God, I think that this is the topic that you want me to talk about.
I have tried on more than one occasion this week to really sit down and record this podcast episode, that it just happens to be the time that I’m doing it and how fitting, because this week we are talking about essentially being a Christian wife and a Christian mother, and the expectations of such. With more so an emphasis on how we really got here in Westernized culture. We really get the Proverbs 31 woman wrong.
I have touched on this throughout various different episodes, but I don’t think that I’ve ever actually done an episode about this topic specifically. A few women have been talking to me recently about this topic and I thought, you know what, I just need to go ahead and do it. So that’s what we’re going to do. And we’re titling this podcast, how westernized civilization gets the Proverbs 31 woman wrong.
Let me give you a little bit of a background. I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up Baptist until I was about 10, and then we started going to a non-denominational church. That really is neither here nor there, because both of them had very similar mindsets—the individual churches in general, I’m not necessarily saying the denominations. Growing up I was never really told that women should be super submissive. The type of wife that when your husband says jump you say how high. I was never taught that.
I came out of a household where my dad would pitch in and do dishes. He would do laundry, even to this day. I came out of a different household. However, I was surrounded by many families and many people who taught their children that submission in marriage essentially meant oppression in marriage. And in fact, even well into adulthood, I have heard things like, “if you feel oppressed as a submissive wife, then that’s just the consequence and weight of sin. You shouldn’t feel oppressed, you should embrace oppression because that’s what you were called to live in.”
Whoa, Whoa, hold on there. Wait a second. Why? Why are you feeling oppressed? And you know, that never really made much sense to me until I realized that I had to have my own experience in marriage. I’m not saying that I felt oppressed, but we’ll get to that in a second.
So I grew up under what most of westernized civilization would call “old fashioned”. Women were supposed to be very gentle and quiet—quietly spoken. They worked around the house all day. The house was spic and span. They took care of the kids. They welcomed their husband home after a hard day’s work—gave him a kiss and they looked all nice and pretty. And those are all wonderful things, but they’re not always realistic things. The Bible really doesn’t talk about all of those things either. America teaches that. Not the Bible. The American church teaches that and it’s false. Often times the backup for it is the Proverbs 31 woman. The church will say, “well, the Bible says this in Proverbs.” And I’m like, well, I don’t see that in Proverbs at all. I want to read it. Because the Proverbs 31 meaning is so much more interesting and in-depth.
Breaking Down the Meaning of Proverbs 31
I’m going to go through these 31 verses with you real quick. They’re not very long. And then we’re going to break down Proverbs 31, but we’re also going to talk about some other pretty amazing women in the Bible. Then, we’re going to talk a little bit about Jewish culture back in biblical days. And so I’m going to try to not make this podcast extremely long, but just know that it could go a little longer than normal.
The sayings of King Lemuel—an inspired utterance his mother taught him.
2 Listen, my son! Listen, son of my womb!
Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers!
3 Do not spend your strength[a] on women,
your vigor on those who ruin kings.
4 It is not for kings, Lemuel—
it is not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,
5 lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
6 Let beer be for those who are perishing,
wine for those who are in anguish!
7 Let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
9 Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character
10 [b]A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
What an amazing woman, right?
Did you hear that her husband had his thumb on her the whole time? No? Me neither. In fact, the Proverbs 31 woman had so much freedom. I’m going to show you where exactly where. In Proverbs 31:11 It says her husband has full confidence in her and lack nothing of value. We are looking at a woman who is married to a man who has confidence in her ability. Who has confidence in her ability to get her job done, whether it is within the home or outside of the home, and lacks nothing. He is supportive. He values her. Likewise, in verse 12, we find that she, also, is very much the same with him. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. That’s what it says. So here we see the very first few verses that they are such an amazing team.
This “wife of noble character”, or text about the virtuous woman in the Bible, isn’t just about the wife. It’s about the husband as well. He has full confidence in her, and her ability, and her voice, and her needs and her passions. And likewise, she brings him good and not any harm. So these two verses really set the stage of the Proverbs 31 woman, because it sets the stage of what her job is. And her job is ultimately that everything that she does points back to her family, points back to her household, and is for her family, her household, and God. There’s really no set rules on what she does and how she does it. As long as her family is taken care of, that’s the rule. As long as all the things that she does points back to God and points back to her family, and is a wise decision—she is within the will of God.
So then we start with the Proverbs 31 woman’s day, in verse 15, we see that she gets up while it’s still nighttime, while it’s still dark. She provides and makes food for her family and portions for her female servants. A lot of women nowadays will say, “well, the Proverbs 31 woman had servants.” And I will tell you that, woman, you also have servants. You have a laundry machine, you have a dishwasher, a vacuum. We have modern amenities that Jewish women did not have back in the day. And so let’s kind of nip that one in the bud right now.
Perhaps one of my favorite verses in all of Proverbs 31 is where in verse 16 it says that she considers a field and buys it, and out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. Some versions of the Bible say out of her money she plants a vineyard, out of her own money. She considers a field and buys it.
Now, why do we always skip over this part? In fact, I feel like this part is one of the most important parts of Proverbs 31. We see that the Proverbs 31 woman not only took care of her household, took care of her children, provided for her family in many ways. But the Proverbs 31 woman was also an entrepreneur. She was an investor. She invested in land. She saw that the field was good and she bought it. It didn’t say “she ran back home to her husband and asked him if she could buy land.” It said she bought it. Period. Of course, we see that husband and wife worked together well. So obviously they have a very good working relationship. But remember, we started this with her husband having full confidence in her, and I’m going to kind of wrap all this together in my personal experience right after we go through this.
So if the Proverbs woman is making conscious and wise choices, which we know that she does, because in verse 26, it says she speaks with wisdom. And if she speaks with wisdom, then that must mean that she makes wise choices as well. Then it’s a no brainer that the Proverbs 31 woman not only worked inside the home, but she worked outside of the home. Verse 18 says she sees that her trading is profitable. So not only was she an entrepreneur, but she also traded, and her trading was profitable. And then we go through the various different things. Her household is clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed. Then we go into the homemaker type things and verse 25, we see that she is clothed with strength and dignity. The Proverbs woman could have certainly been dainty and quiet in many ways. In Titus, women are instructed to have a gentle and quiet spirit, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t also be outspoken and speak up and be strong and courageous. See, the Proverbs 31 meaning is so much more than just housekeeping. I fact, it’s hardly even that.
What Does Jewish Tradition Say About Women?
So without treading on through Proverbs 31 much longer, I want to get into Jewish tradition real quick. In Jewish tradition, especially in Bible days, women were really kind of, unequal. They had no rights. Women could not technically buy land on their own. In America, even in the forties, which wasn’t that long ago, a woman couldn’t purchase a property or get a loan or sstart her own business, unless her husband or her father co-signed with her. It wasn’t that long ago, friends.
I want to read something to you in Galatians 3. We’re going to start in verse 26, and it says, “so in Christ Jesus, you are all children through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you’re Abraham’s seed and heirs.”
These verses are from an economic standpoint, though you could certainly take it figuratively. There’s no Jew nor Gentile, nor slave nor free, nor male nor female. But he was specifically speaking on an economic front that we shouldn’t think of ourselves more highly than another, in every possible way. So I want to kind of put that verse out there because now I want to go through some women in the Bible that you’ve probably have heard of, but you may not know much about.
The Story of Deborah
The first woman is probably a woman that most of us know, and her name was Deborah. After Joshua’s conquest on Canaan, the Lord raised up judges (you’ll see that in Judges 2:16). And one of them was Deborah. Of course, she was a woman. Now Deborah was a prophet—and suddenly there’s gasps…what? We have women prophets in the Bible? Yes, absolutely. We do. And I’ll show you that in Judges 4, it says “now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth was leading Israel at the time.” So not only was she a prophet, but she was also married.
Now in America, sometimes we see this happen, and husbands of women in leadership get very, very jealous. I don’t know that Lappidoth was very jealous. He might’ve even been scared of Deborah for all we know. I joke, kind of. She was a very strong woman. She wasn’t just a judge, she was the leader of the Israeli military. She was leading an entire nation. So I would dare you to tell her she’s not worthy. Tell her she’ll be deceived and rebuked—that evil Jezebel. Because that’s what we would say in America.
If a “Deborah” rose up in the midst of us, some churches would say, “but she’s a woman”. She has a different place here. You know that a lot of churches still say that. And it always goes back to the Jezebel thing, which if you don’t know who Jezebel was, she was an evil ruler, and she died in a very horrible way because she was, essentially, an abomination to God. But let’s talk about Deborah, not Jezebel.
So a commander from neighboring Canaan had been oppressing the Israelites for quite some time. So the Lord commanded Deborah to take her army and kill Sisera, who was the commander of the Cannan army. So Deborah prophesied that Sisera would be delivered unto, and killed by, a woman. And she was exactly right. So in Judges 4:21, it says, “but Jael, Herber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep.” He being Sisera. “He was exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple, into the ground and he died.” I’m pretty glad he died. Because that would have been a horrible death had he not died right away.
So not only was Deborah a prophet, she knew that Sisera was going to die, and that a woman would kill him.
Deborah was a ruler. She was a leader. She was militaristic, but she was also religious and political as well. The people of Israel enjoyed 40 years of peace because of Deborah—Deborahs servanthood as a judge. I would hate for our corrupted view of women in the American church to deter a young woman from rising up and liberating an entire country. Let that sink in for a second. And let me say that one more time.
I would hate for our corrupted view of women in the American church today to deter a young woman from rising up and liberating an entire country.
The Story of Miriam
Let’s move on to the next woman in the Bible. We’re going to just briefly touch on Miriam. You may know her most by her being the sister of Moses. She actually was the one who took Moses and followed him through the water, as he was delivered to Pharaoh’s daughter. And of course Moses mother, her name was Jochabed, and she was able to raise him still through the blessing and graciousness of God. But you can read that story for yourself, we won’t read through that one.
Miriam was also not a quiet, sit down, shut up kind of gal. In fact, Miriam sang loudly and danced vibrantly in Exodus 15, as she led people with Moses out of the Red Sea. She was not just a poet and a singer and a dancer. She was also a prophetess. And we see that throughout scripture. Unfortunately Miriam got sidetracked but we’re not going to go through all Miriam’s story. I just wanted to mention her because she was worth mentioning as she was so vibrantly not what women were “supposed” to be according to Jewish law back then.
The Story of Esther
Next, I want to talk about beautiful queen Esther. Now we just celebrated Purim. And that is one of the various different feasts that you can have in the Jewish culture. Queen Esther was an amazing woman and essentially, long story short, she was Jewish. The King was looking for a new wife. He chose Esther because she was beautiful, not knowing that she was Jewish.
The Kings high official, Haman, did not like her family members, especially Mordecai. He did not like the Jewish people. And so therefore he essentially tried to convince the King to, as most people wanted when it came to the Jews, to kill Jews and do bad things. And so Esther was really put into place to deliver her people. We see that in Esther 4:14, where Mordecai is speaking to her. And he says “for if you remained silent at this time,” because remember that Esther had, you know, this tourmoil inside of her, like, what do I do? What do I say? What if, what if something bad comes of this? And I die, you know? Continuing, “where if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.” So essentially saying, if you don’t do it, someone else will, continuing “but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows, but that you have come to your Royal position for such a time as this.” That was Esther 4:14.
Now Esther, her characteristics, she is very strong and courageous, but she was also very gentle and quiet spirited. And that caused the King to trust her and he listened to her. So we’ve gone through with Deborah where Deborah was very strong and just courageous and brave and such a big leader. And then we go into this queen Esther type of leader who was also strong and brave, but one of her greatest character traits was that she was calm and she was quiet spirited. And that’s what won the King over to trust her and essentially listen to her pleas.
Now the story of Esther essentially takes over what kind of looks like it only takes a few days, but it really lasted over the course of 10 years. And I think it’s really important because we can see the differences in women and how God wanted to use each woman and how each woman had a different gift and a different personality and a different lifestyle. But ultimately their goals were the same. Their goals were family and their goals were God. Right?
The Story of Huldah
Finally, I want to touch on another woman that you may not really know in the Bible, who I think is a very, very important and her name is Huldah. Okay. Now, listen, I’ve read the Bible. And I really don’t remember Huldah. You know, when I first started doing research and it made me more aware of her. Huldah is an extremely important influence on us even today, because Huldah not only interpreted the Torah, but she also authorized it.
So the very core of Jewish and Christian scripture was interpreted by a woman. Can you believe that? Let that sink in for just a second. Huldah was a prophetess, and the public reading of the law brought about a revival resulting in the reforms, carried out by King Josiah. There’s not much about Huldah in the Bible, but the little we know about her is fascinating and extremely important. Huldah was sought out, because of her knowledge and her ability to talk to people—women and men sought after her at the city gates.
Huldah is one of the women in the Bible that me, personally, I feel like I feel the most connected to. She had a way with words, she loved teaching. She loved God. She loved prophesying. She loved reading. She loved researching. She loved all of the things that I love. And so when I started reading about Huldah, it really resonated with me.
You know, the one thing that resonates most with me about these women is that not only were they chosen, they were willing to be used. Not only that, though, most of these women had husbands who encouraged them to be used by the Lord. Who took heed to the things that the Lord told these women. They didn’t brush them off simply because they were women. I think that’s really important.
My Own Experience
Okay. So let me go through my personal experience with you. All of this in the first part of the podcast is research that I did because (this was years ago that I did it) I, myself, struggled with it.
So, the beginning of my story of where I came from a family that wasn’t necessarily old school religious. My father was definitely a leader in our family. My mother was certainly submissive. But my father was never the type who would say, no, you can’t do that. You know? Well, my husband grew up quite differently. A lot of his family grew up old time Pentecostal and a lot of them, and I’m not saying every side of his family does, just certain portions of them. A lot of times the old time Pentecostal churches, that’s how you’re brought up. Even old time Baptist churches can be this way, various different denominations and even nondenominational ones are the same.
But mostly it stems from an old culture and Christianity where we take scriptures kind of out of context about women. We teach that women are supposed to be quiet in church, right? They shouldn’t really say anything. They should never challenge a man and challenge a man’s teaching or anything like that. And you know, it was funny because we were in Sunday school this past Sunday and the Sunday school teacher, he’s teaching from the Bible and he said, “how do you know if what I’m teaching you is true.” And we all just kind of looked at him and he goes, “well, if it’s not true, you should tell me.” And I’m thinking, but in some churches, if it’s a woman who wants to challenge you, because she knows the word better than you like, (hello, Huldah?), it would be looked down upon. Right?
But anyhow, so when I first got married, I was young. I was 18. And in my mind (I don’t know why, I was never taught this, but maybe because my husband was, or he assumed it) I thought I was supposed to be the stay at home wife who was barefoot, having babies, kept the house floor lickable and, all of those things. And I should have a pristine home and, and, and, you know, whatever to each their own. And I should do nothing but praise my husband and make sure he has dinner on the table every night. And ultimately, I should “know that my place” (that’s what I thought, no one really told me I should feel this way).
But that’s, for some reason, what I thought, unfortunately, a lot of it stemmed from blogs (I didn’t know the Proverbs 31 meaning, the true one). You know, I was a brand new wife. A couple years later, I was a brand new mom. And a lot of women were teaching falsity. And I mean, big named women in marriage blogs, teaching that you were supposed to be quiet, you weren’t supposed to question your husband’s leadership. You weren’t supposed to tell him he was wrong. You weren’t supposed to want to work outside of the home. Those where things you weren’t supposed to do because it wasn’t biblical.
So ultimately our goal, when we got married, was to have me eventually become a stay at home mother. And that happened for us in 2016, we worked very hard towards that. And that’s another story for another day. I can link a YouTube video in the description of the podcast, to where you can go to kind of figure out how we became work at home self-employed people. But anyhow, we had reached a level in 2016 where I no longer had to work at all, period. I completely quit my job in August of 2016. It might’ve actually been the end of July. And during those few weeks, right after I quit, I felt so dissatisfied. I was so bored, I felt so useless, and I just thought, “this is not how I should feel”. And then I felt guilty. I felt guilty that I felt this way. Like “you shouldn’t want to work because that’s what all these big time mom and Christian wife bloggers had told me, we shouldn’t want to work because your work at home is good enough. Right?” And it is, it really is, it is good enough, but that’s not quite true for every woman. Some women are called to that, and even more alongside that.
And so a month later I started a brand new business because I really felt that it was God inspired. And now I’m learning even more so, five years later, that it definitely was. But I felt guilt. And I had opposition from every direction, every direction I had it, but it all works out.
When I started looking at this stuff, I started looking at the Proverbs 31 woman, you know, I realized that I was looking for truth everywhere, except for where I should be looking for it—the Bible. And if you want truth in Christianity, you have to go to the Bible, not mom bloggers. The Bible will show you what truth is.
And so in this podcast, I’ve laid out truth for you. The Proverbs 31 woman didn’t sit idle. In fact, in one of those verses, it said that she did not eat the bread of idleness. There’s only so many times you can clean your house during the day. There’s only so many. Well, certainly, I mean, I’m so disorganized that I could probably work on my house all day long, but I just didn’t feel like that was me.
So I made wise business decisions when I realized that, you know what, the Proverbs woman worked outside of the home, but she worked only for a temporary time outside of the home. It all got brought back home for the purpose of home.
And so I started mirroring my businesses after the Proverbs 31 woman, where you get up and you take care of your family, you take care of your household, you get your household in order. And then when all of that is done, then my work began. The work that brings in a substantial income for my family. Now, the work that I’m passionate about (this podcast is included), the work that God called me to do.
And I’ve got to tell you, I can’t tell you how many times I have been told that I am wrong because I am a woman. Just recently on the Homesteaders of America Facebook page. And that’s, if you guys don’t know, that’s one of the businesses that I own, we have tens of thousands of followers.
Anyhow, I had a guy publicly comment on one of our posts saying, “well, I’m unfollowing you because you’re a woman. And what would you know, I need to learn from men that are actually doing this.”
And I just sat there. And I thought to myself, “because I’m a woman (and I am a woman). I am proud to be a woman. I love being a woman, but because I’m a woman, you can’t learn from me? Like, what ego!” That is what pride is. It’s not my fault that I’m a woman and you don’t want to listen to me. It’s your fault that you’re an arrogant man who doesn’t know the value of both genders.
So it’s still there, and it’s especially there in Christianity. But as I learned, eventually all that guilt went away throughout my journey of getting to this point of being confident as a wife and a mother and an entrepreneur in the plan that God has for me.
I still get judged a lot by moms who don’t have a job outside of housewife and mama. And let me just tell you those two jobs are exhausting in and of themselves. They are, and they are enough. You don’t have to have a job other than that, you really don’t. But ladies, can I encourage you to not discourage a woman from passionately following what she truly believes is right for her and right for her family, again, through that lens, that it’s always pointing back to being good for her family. We never want to encourage women to do things that are not good for their family, of course, but never discourage them from the things that they want to do. If their family is still well taken care of, and they especially feel passionate and God inspired by it, encourage them.
I would venture to say that it’s more women than men that have an issue with women working outside of the home. Now, I’m not saying that these women are actively going to work and just not taking care of their children. Those are not the situations I’m talking about. But these Proverbs 31 women are women who love staying busy, who get up in the morning, get their kids ready, homeschool, work during nap time. And they might stay up until midnight every night, or they might get up at four o’clock in the morning to do their jobs, to do their business at home. Don’t judge them. They are doing just as holy work as you are by only taking care of your children and household.
They have a place too, there’s no right or wrong. The Proverbs 31 meaning is more than just housekeeper, remember? We can see that with Deborah. We can see that with Esther. We can see that with Huldah. Each woman had a different character trait, a different passion and a different way that God used her. You know, we could even bring up other women in the Bible that you would know by name like Mary and Sarah and Hannah, who certainly gave birth to amazing men, but they didn’t do extraordinary things outside of that. They were just housewives and moms. And that’s an extraordinary thing, friend. If that’s what you are, then that’s an extraordinary thing.
But a woman who is even more than that, or who has decided to take on work or do a job while her kids are napping or while her family is asleep, is equally as important and just has a different calling on her life than you may. That does not mean that she does not love her family or that she does not want to be near her kids or that she values work over home life. And in fact, it probably normally means that she values home life so much that she wants to contribute to it. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to work. I love staying busy. I love working, especially if it’s something I’m passionate about, but we’ve also had our share number of health scares.
And I realized, you know, the Proverbs 31 woman, everything she did was profitable. And it said in Proverbs 31, it said that her household never feared because everything was taken care of.
Wow. What if my husband hurts himself, and I’m only relying on his income? We had that scare. We had a medical scare with him a couple of years ago. And of course it was a wrong medical scare. They misdiagnosed him. But with the original diagnosis, he would have been out of commission for months with the surgery he would have had to have. And we’re, I mean, we’re talking like not just a back surgery or a knee surgery, we’re talking about an organ surgery. You know, he would have been out of commission for months. And if I had no income, can you imagine? Can you imagine the stress that not only I would have felt, but that he would have felt. And from that moment, that was the moment where I said we will never, ever—this will never happen.
And so I, every side job or work I’ve done in the last few years, it goes into savings because if there comes a time where heaven forbid he get hurt or have a health issue or heaven forbid, and I pray not anytime soon, he die. That responsibility is then mine to take care of my family. And I would much rather prepare for it now, than have it happen 10 years from now and not be prepared for it because, can you imagine how much more stress? Heartache? Confusion? Turmoil?
I have a lot of women friends that do odd and end jobs just to put aside into savings or just to help their husband meet goals that they have, whether it’s making extra house payments or buying their first house or expanding their property, or even just putting aside for retirement. And I feel like there is goodness and honesty and holiness in that. And even if you aren’t doing that, that’s fine too. There’s no judgment, but we have to stop judging and criticizing women and using Proverbs 31 as a means to criticize women and wrongly, try to subject them to what you think, or a church thinks a woman is supposed to be or do or say or think. And I think it’s high time in America that we have that freedom, because there was so much freedom in Proverbs 31. And I hope that in this podcast, you learned exactly that.
All right, guys, thank you for joining me for this week’s podcast episode. It did go longer than normal. And I knew it was going to be a long one, but I hope that it was worth your time. I hope that if you are a woman who is passionate about doing good and honest work, that this encourages you to keep doing it. I hope that if you are a woman who says, “I still don’t want to work, I want to be at home with my babies all day long. I just want to do housewife stuff”, that it also encourages you to just be you. That that is also really amazing and good work, and that you would keep doing it with a grateful heart, but at no time, at no time, should you ever feel oppression.
If it’s going right and it’s working right, and it’s working biblically, there should never be any kind of oppression, but that also depends on you, too. It’s always good to reevaluate our heart as women to make sure that the things that we are doing are Godly and they are truthful. And they are going along with God’s word, that our families are taken care of. First, our husbands are never harmed by us in word or deed or thought, and then that we pursue the passions of our heart and the passions of Christ.
Until next time, hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. I hope to see on the next one, and don’t forget to Choose Simple.
Susan Coburn says
Great article! Very balanced! I admire women who can do so many things! I’m a low energy gal but I homeschooled, I garden and can and am very frugal. When my husband retired he said he’d done ok, but it was what I had done that made all the difference. Each of us has different talents and gifts. We should encourage one another in our gifts rather than compare ourselves. “They who compare themselves amongst themselves are not wise.
Brian says
What I found is how to destroy the meaning of scripture. Well done.
Do you find it acceptable for a husband or wife today to go buy property without any discussion and agreement? That alone ends your futile twisting of scripture.
We are all one – economic front? You are not a student of proper Bible teaching and study and should stop twisting it.
Amy K. Fewell says
Sounds like you’re a very angry and dramatic man if you enjoy calling out women online. Not surprising.