She Rises While it is Still Night...

March 24, 2011


Proverbs 31:15 She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens

Since this was not the age of microwaves and cold cereal, this lady had to get up before dawn in order to make sure that her household, her family, had food. I’ll admit to being in awe of that. There was a time in my life that I had myself “trained” to get up early, and I loved it. However, once lost it’s a very difficult habit to get back in to. MacArthur states that the Proverbs 31 woman did this “gladly.” This is a sacrifice that’s difficult to make grudgingly, not to mention gladly. One of my favorite sayings is, “God gives you exactly what you can do in the twenty-four hours He grants us…”; if we “run out of time”, perhaps we are doing things He hasn’t meant for us to. I doubt very seriously that those “things” are extra work; for me at least, those “things” could certainly be in the realm of lazy or selfish. I have often wondered if maybe one of the reasons God called us to home school our children was to show me how selfish I was with my time. I also think that one of the reasons this year has been so difficult for me is because I am rebelling against the constraints placed on what “I” want to do. “She rises while it is still night..” symbolizes, for me at least, a woman willing to give what is necessary, even as a sacrifice of herself, for the betterment of her family. To her, her family is worth it; is mine?