Cathe-0044

Isaiah 33:6 says, "Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure."

When your life is unstable and all around you is chaos, wisdom is your stability. The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Wisdom is applying God’s Word to make the right decisions in dealing with your husband, children, and life in general.

When I think of a wise woman, there are so many examples, but one that comes to mind is the wife in It’s a Wonderful Life. I just love that movie. I watch it every year during Christmas time. I used to watch it while I wrapped presents, but a local theater shows it every year, so I round up everyone I can and we go sit in the balcony to watch it on the big screen.

In the story, George Bailey had dreams of traveling the world, but his dreams were always put on hold as life happened. He didn’t want to fall in love with Mary—it wasn’t in his plans—but he did and they got married.

As they drove to the train station after they got married, they passed by the bank he had taken over when his dad died. He saw a big line of people waiting outside, so he stopped the taxi and jumped out to see what was going on, leaving his bride of just a few moments alone in the taxi. Panicked by the stock market crash, the people were scrambling to get all of their money out (sound familiar?).

George spent the rest of the day and night trying to calm the people down and saving the business. In the hubbub, he forgot all about Mary.

Now here is where wisdom comes in. She had some choices to make as she sat in that taxi. She could have cried, and maybe she did for a bit. She could have run home to mama. She could have made him pay for the rest of his life.

But she chose to do the wise thing. She yielded her feelings, and considered his feelings instead.

In James 3:17, one of the things that James says to describe wisdom is that it is willing to yield, and it is full of mercy.

Mary Bailey used wisdom—giving up her right to bitterness, resentment, and disappointment—and poured her life into her husband. Was she hurt? Probably, but she must have prayed and moved. As a result, she showed her husband great mercy.

In the next scene, Mary called George at work and told him to come home. When he said, "Home? Where is that?", his friends took him to this old abandoned house that Mary had once told him she loved.

As he walked into this house, out of the rain, there was a table set with candlelight, a fireplace, and a put-together honeymoon suite, complete with posters of exotic places and music. He ran into her arms, so grateful that after a horrible day he didn’t have to smooth things over with her too. She set the tone for the rest of her life with George.

So many things in life just don’t go as planned, right? Many of us can say, "I never thought my life would end up this way . . . "

Ruth was called a virtuous woman, and her life truly was not what she thought it would be.

She found herself a widow without children. But somehow she came to love God, who was not the god they served in Moab. She chose to love the God of Naomi, so much so that she chose to go with her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem.

Some commentators believe that Ruth was the daughter of the king of Moab, so she must have come from some privilege before she made the choice to follow Naomi. When she left for Israel, she did not have the wealth and resources that the Proverbs 31 woman did, and yet she was known for her virtue and fear of the Lord. She found herself at the poverty level, collecting the leftovers of the harvest to feed Naomi and herself.

I don’t see any victim here. She was just doing, as Elizabeth Elliot says, the next thing. She trusted in the God of Naomi. In giving Naomi the gift of herself, her rights, and disappointments, the Lord gave her good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, in the same way that we read of in Luke 6:38.

Isaiah 37:28 says, "But I know your dwelling place, your going out and your coming in." God does see you, and He knows your situation well.

Oh women, know your God and spend time with Him. He will guide you, tell you not to fear, and comfort you. He will give you stability for all that you face. And He works miracles, just as He did in my life.

In verse 23 of Proverbs 31, it says; "Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land." In short, her husband is respected in the community and is known, so also is she.

As Proverbs 12:4 says, "A good wife is like a crown for her husband. Everyone sees the crown and knows the person wearing it is respected."

Verse 28 tells us, "Her husband also praises her." Some years back, as my husband and I were working so hard on our marriage, he said to me one day, "You make me want to be a better man!"

How sweet to my ears was that comment, and I carry it with me forever.

I am no one special. I don’t have a brilliant mind. I haven’t studied Greek or Latin. I am simply a woman of God who took very seriously what the Word of God told me to do.

Was it easy? Is denying your flesh ever easy? But I watched God bless my life as I grew and cried out to Him in my hard places and obeyed when He told me to.

Today, my husband does stand up and call me blessed. Not because I deserve it, and not because I am anything special, but because of Jesus and taking Him at His word.

This book isn’t old and outdated. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He does not change! His word for marriage is just as relevant today as it was when it was written.