Through our blog The Collaborative strives to bring you great content that is accessible, challenging, and stimulating. In this endeavor it also provides us with the opportunity to introduce our audience to wonderful sources. Today’s article gives us much to consider, but it is potentially also introduces you to the Common Good Monthly put out by Made to Flourish. Once you finish today’s article, I would encourage you to explore more of this online magazine. Happy Reading!
The Proverbs 31 Woman Is Not the Ideal Woman
She’s the Ideal Church
by Eric Schumacher
About a year ago, we bought a home. It has a long driveway, stretching from the road to a garage on the back of the property. That’s a lot of concrete to clear when it snows here in Iowa. I had not prepared for the first snowfall, which brought several inches of thick, heavy snow. It took our family of seven several hours (and shovels) to clear the snow. But this morning, when we woke up to five inches of snow, I did not fear (throwing out my back again). I could laugh at the snowfall. Because I had purchased a snowblower fit for our drive.
These blankets of snow remind me of the wisdom in Proverbs 31:21: “She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all in her household are doubly clothed.” She is the “wife of noble character” — and she has something to say to all of us.
In a sad and ironic twist, this wife of noble character, who is “far more precious than jewels,” is too often undervalued in Christian circles. Commonly referred to as “the Proverbs 31 woman,” her value is often restricted to merely an example of the “ideal woman,” an image trotted out at women’s ministry events and on Mother’s Day. But she is not given to us as the ideal woman. She is a wife fit for a king.
Crosland Stuart, of Crosland & Company, LLC, works with The Collaborative
on vocational guilds and content creation. Additionally, she also works in the areas of
foundation consulting, communications, and is a literary agent.
