Present-Day Proverbs 31: Work and Worth for WomenSample

Day Four: Maintaining Your Mindset

As we’ve been exploring, the fact that the Proverbs 31 woman is gifted is actually a secondary element to the conversation, but also as we’ve been unpacking, it is a part of it. When I read verse 10 and think about the fact that she is hard to find and not someone who is like others, it’s clear that some of this will be attributed to the gifts she brings.

No, our identity and worth isn’t wrapped up in our gifts, however, we have been given these gifts for a reason.

1 Peter 4:10 makes it clear that gifts have not only been given to all, but that they are to be stewarded in service to others. It’s important to reiterate here that the gifts, skills and talents which you possess, and the ideas and big visions and dreams which you have, have been given to you for a reason.

Truly recognising that will mean that you enable yourself to actually change how you view yourself. We don’t, for example, get the impression from our key passage, that the Proverbs 31 woman was a people pleaser or someone who felt the need to tend to everyone’s needs at all times… and yet she was kind and she was loved.

Healthy boundaries for present-day Proverbs 31 women are essential. With so much demanding our time, energy, resources and beyond, it’s crucial that we understand who we are in the midst of it all, which of course, only becomes more prominent when we truly understand whose we are.

When we recognise that what we’ve been given to use and to offer others is divinely purposed and specific, it no longer becomes arrogance or superiority if we begin to more carefully steward how and where we spend our time.

Verses 16 - 18 remind us that the work of the Proverbs 31 woman wasn’t all hustle and heart with nothing to show for it. Quite the opposite in fact. Her work was clearly profitable. Her purchase of a field was a wise move. Not only would this generate food for her family (in the planting of crops etc.) but it also became another income stream (in the selling of crops.)

Verse 24 of our text tells us that The Proverbs 31 woman personally delivered her work to the people who desired it. We can now do things with a lot less effort than this took – with the click of a button in fact! We can be just as imaginative as this woman with regards to thinking about what’s in our hands and what we’ve specifically been tasked with. However, we can actually be even more resourceful. The opportunities are truly endless.

So often, we can have the impression that selling or looking for ways in which our work can be profitable is somehow ‘greedy’, and yet the Proverbs 31 woman demonstrates to us that it is actually wise to do so. Not only this, she recognised the value of her work. Verse 18 indicates that she knew just how profitable it actually was and therefore she worked hard to ensure that she maximised that opportunity.

Don’t second-guess the worth of your work or the abilities God has given you to be resourceful and wise with. Maintain a mindset which causes you to maximise the opportunities you’ve been blessed with, you never know who you'll be blessing in return.