Wife and Mother According to the Bible

Proverbs 31:10-12 and 25-31
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm all the days of her life.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things,but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Ok, that is a lot to live up to. Or is it? The Bible encourages us to be brave, strong, truthful, dignified, wise, and faithful to ourselves, our loved ones and our God. Are those things so hard to accomplish? Do we continue to strive for these things even if we fail day after day? I try to be a good wife, mother, daughter and friend. I want the people in my life to be proud of me and trust in me. When I close my eyes at night, I vow to myself that tomorrow I will strive to be strong in my character. I want to be noble and dignified. I want to focus on the internal more and less on the external. So what changes in the bright dawn of day? I'm focusing on the weight I want to lose, the bad hair day I'm having, the house I have to clean, the errands I have to run and a million other things that don't really matter. At the end of my life, I don't want people to say that I had a clean house or that I was thin (ok, that one will never happen). I want to be remembered as kind, generous, thoughtful, giving of myself to others and devoted to the people in my life. I want to be known as a good and happy wife, mother, friend and daughter. Does it really matter if my house is messy, cluttered or that I could fit into my skinny jeans.

So, come tomorrow I will still try to stick to my diet and clean my house. But I will focus more on being the kind of person described in the Bible because she sounds like someone I would like to be.