The Ecclesiastes Woman
Proverbs lays it out well for us gals, the gold standard description for what a good woman should be. That woman is worth more than diamonds. She knits. She’s organized. She has gumption. She’s creative. She’s insanely intelligent, yet kind. She elevates her husband. She nurtures her children. She creates wealth. She is beautiful, not because of how she looks, but because of how she has aligned her heart to God. I love everything about this woman. I do find the pedestal she stands on to be surrounded by very steep steps. While the things we aspire to are meant to be difficult in terms of acquisition, my frustration, nonetheless, still mounts. Did this Proverbs woman ever lose a child, I wonder? Did she fight Stage 3 cancer? Ever lose a breast? Ever have a car repossessed? Suffer a home foreclosure? Feel like the days were dark and the nights too long? Of course, she did, I reason with myself. She did all of this in biblical days, bereft of things like electricity, modern medicine, and Walmart. Still, I believe that the best way to get from the basement to the roof is to journey in increments. First, I gotta climb up to the kitchen level. Then, once I’ve acclimated, I can shoot for the second-floor bedroom. Finally, I can find the roof. So, on the way to the Proverbs woman, might I introduce you to a really sweet lady I met in Ecclesiastes?
