Proverbs 31:13-15

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up whilst it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.

Wow! A lot to live up to! The Proverbs 31 Woman is not only wise with what she chooses to work with, she is the one doing the work. She selects carefully the items she brings in to her home, and the foods she feeds her family and servants. Having eager hands indicates that she loves what she is doing and pours herself into what she is doing for household fully. That she can’t wait to get into what needs to be done each day.

I looked up ‘eager’ in the Collins English Dictionary and it describes the feeling (and it is a feeling) as being ‘impatiently desirous’, or ‘anxious or avid’. Another meaning is ‘characterized by a feeling of expectancy or great desire’. So the verse above could well mean that she was anxious to get her work done (and if there’s a lot to be done in a day then I guess we all feel that way and are keen to get an early start to achieve as much as possible), or perhaps she was pleased with her plans for her family for the day and could not wait to get it completed as she had a great desire to share it with the family. There are a number of ways you could read this. But the end result is, I’m sure, that she had much to do and she was responsible for the end result of what needed to be done.

She works long hours, getting up before the rest of her family, to prepare for her day and to prepare food for them. But it also shows something else. Don’t forget the mention of the ‘servant girls’. Verse 15 shows that she didn’t work alone – she had help, in this case, her servant girls. But an important point here is that she also cared for those who helped her. Whilst it is not common today for the majority of us to have servants, it would be an expectation that family members pitch in and help with family matters and errands. The mention of the servant girls shows that she didn’t do it all alone, although she had responsibility for what needed to be done.

Bringing things from afar, being like a merchant ship, indicates that she not only made use of resources available close by, but if there was something not good enough (or not available) for her family, she sought further afield to find the right things to bring into her household. Sometimes we just ‘make do’ with something we’ve found close to home, although it’s not quite what we were looking for, or not quite the right quality, or not quite the right… something, but because of lack of time, resources, or just plain impatience, we tend to ‘make do’. This verse shows that the Proverbs 31 Woman didn’t just ‘make do’, she brought things from afar into her household.

The Proverbs 31 Woman was ultimately a wise shopper, careful with the household income, careful choosing the foods and items purchased for the household, careful with what she did with the hours she had, providing for her family in a loving and wise way.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be wise with what I choose for my family, with the hours I work in my home or out of home, and grant me the eagerness I need to carry out my duties as wife and mother in the way that You would desire for me.

resources, income,proverbs 31, wisdom, work