All the Days of Her Life

This past Sunday my pastor gave a great message, one of the subjects he talked about was the Proverbs 31:12 verse,

"She brings him good and not harm, all the days of her life."

He was talking about daughters this time and sharing how a young woman can keep her life pure so she will bring her future husband good. Not just once the vows are made but way, way before that. How she has a responsibility according to this verse to come into the marriage PURE and spending her early years beforehand preparing herself for her future husband and home.

I have heard this taught before and thought it to be very compelling in the sense that a girl does not have to waste her time before she is married to begin 'real life'. There is so much a girl can do---how important it is for her to prepare herself! Imagine if we had had the time to prepare---if our parents had directed us purposefully to 'redeem the time' of our childhood so many of our past mistakes that would not have been.

I was also saddened to hear of the recent story of 17 highschool girls who were under the age of 16 and apparently one of the babies were fathered by a twenty-four year old homeless man. My heart cried out----where was the vision? Where were there parents? How could these girls get so off track?



Instead of squandering her time, a young lady could do many things to prepare herself not just for her future husband and home but also for the Lord's work that He will have planned for her. The most important thing she can do is grow closer to the Lord by spending time in the Word. It will help keep her from going astray and she will be laying a good foundation for herself and her family later. We all know that when the children start coming along it is alot harder to study in depth then---so now is an excellent time to take advantage of that.

It is important to grow her skills in cooking, cleaning, household management, reading books on being a godly wife/ training children and mentoring under older, godly women. She can learn valuable resourceful skills such as sewing, knitting, gardening, playing an instrument and she can devote more time to being missional in her family with her siblings, neighbors and world. She can minister in her local church and help moms there in need---this will give her much necessary practice for later. She can help instruct the little ones in her own family and help mentor and influence them towards godliness, for her first affections and loyalties should first be toward her home she lives in now. A young girl should NEVER waste her time, but she should be a good steward of it, always remembering to bless others with her gifts, time and talents. She should be challenged---perhaps write a book for children, perform a musical piece for church, encourage and help support a missions family in another country---the list is endless.

I urge you to think out of the box. If a fifteen year old boy can build his own home, then we absolutely should raise the bar of expectations for our children, for His glory alone, and never to impress others with trophy children or prideful parenting. We cannot risk not breathing and speaking vision into our daughters lives.We cannot grow weary of the holy responsibility---the humbling and glorious calling of raising up the next generation whom will impact this world for our King, Jesus Christ.