Valuing What We Do
Most of what we do as mom’s takes so much skill. Yet many times we underestimate what we do. We read in Proverbs 31: 19 and 27 New American Standard Version:
19 She stretches out her hand to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle. 27 She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
I watched a video of someone spinning wool with a distaff and spindle-it takes a lot of talent to spin wool this way! One hand holds the distaff with the unspun wool, while the other hand holds and twirls the spindle turning the wool into yarn-this takes a lot of coordination. It’s kind of like balancing several spinning plates at the same time-doesn’t that sound a lot like what we do as mom’s? It’s called JUGGLING. “Grasp” H8551 in this verse means to KEEP FAST, HOLD, RETAIN, STAY. This is a picture of a woman FIRMLY grasping the distaff, PURPOSEFULLY using her skill. Whether we work outside the home or inside the home, we need to VALUE the skill it takes to juggle all we do as moms.
Looking well to the ways of our household, means being prepared. But in the Hebrew LOOKING WELL means to PEER INTO THE DISTANCE OR AWAIT, KEEP THE WATCH OR WATCHMAN. Moms are often the first to sense when their child is in danger-can anyone say Momma Bear? But as moms who are believers, we peer into the distance or future, not with fear, but with HOPE, knowing that nothing can touch our children apart from His will for them, knowing that God loves our children, even more than we do! In prayer, we can also be watchmen on the wall for our children, praying and interceding for them and their future.
So what does it mean to eat the bread of idleness. I find the phrasing here interesting-this does not say, “don’t be idle”, instead it says, “don’t eat the bread of idleness”. EAT H398 means to EAT, CONSUME, DEVOUR. Therefore, EATING idleness, means CONSUMING it. There is a choice here to consume or not consume. And Idleness means LAZINESS, SLUGGISHNESS. If someone is lazy or sluggish, they are usually either moving very slowly or sitting still. They are not moving forward. When we are EATING or CONSUMING idleness, we are doing things that are not helping us or our families make any progress. We are doing things that DO NOT add anything to our lives or our families lives. Reality check! I know I can think of a few things that I spend my time on that really don’t add anything to my life or our family’s life. Time to assess how I spend my time!
So as we are juggling all we do as moms, let’s be purposeful in how we spend our time and
LET’S REALIZE OUR WORTH and VALUE OUR OWN SKILLS and ALL THAT WE BRING TO OUR FAMILIES.
Tell yourself YOU GO GIRL! (It’s ok to talk to yourself-David did it all over the Psalms!).
In His Love,
Suzanne
Mom Morsels 