Are you the kind of woman that would wish to have some part in the choosing of your son’s future wife or in the selection of your daughter’s future husband ... where you knew without a doubt that the person he or she married would bring everlasting happiness and contentment?

Are you the kind of woman that would wish if it were possible that you could contrive by some means to instill the knowledge that your have gained in the Lord down to your son or daughter?

Think about that for a moment.

Even though our sons and daughters may be fully grown, this fact should make us all walk warily, I believe, and lead us to the source of every good which takes us to Proverbs 31. By our age, we should be at a place where we have sat at the Master’s feet and learned of him all that we can (and still want more) so that when we go back to our children (young or old), they will see God’s Spirit shining through our eyes with a guidance alike to their thoughts, emotions, and actions. But how can we do this? Once they have left the nest, how can we instill God to them?

It all goes back to the Virtuous Woman...that woman with the strength of a spiritual Gibraltar. This virtuous woman is devoted, unselfish, domesticated, and not too easily discovered in our day and age.

Why is that?

This woman’s heart is always kind and her eyes are far-seeing. She lives not to herself. She lives not to the world. She lives not to the little circle she has made for herself or her particular world. Instead, she lives to and for the Lord Jesus Christ who has chosen her lot wherever and whatever it may be. This is the virtuous woman. The wise man, Solomon, in the 31st chapter of Proverbs spoke in detail about her.

I love the virtuous woman with her words softly-spoken, her significant looks when there is little to say. I love it that she is able to stop an argument with a single word, and that she can beam at the good and right that is in her husband or in her children or in those around her. They see everything she says and does and yet she is able to go on.

It’s good to spend quality time in Proverbs 31:10-31 now and again. After all we are all women. But are we all virtuous?

No time like the present to find out.

This study is a complete overview of her and how we see ourselves in her slippers.

Is she the "Perfect" wife? If this is so, I fall far short. What about you? Maybe a better rendering here would be "Spiritually Mature."

In the description of Solomon, "wisdom" is her common speech because she rejects idle gossip. This is such a good thing. She enjoys being better known as an encourager of good (as we read in Philippians 4:8). Her speech and the wisdom that comes forth from it is wrapped up like a Christmas package in love and honor to the Almighty God because she worships him first and foremost. She speaks with love and honor to the husband God has given her as well and to the children she is raising or to whom God has given her for a season. Maybe they are hers naturally or maybe God has chosen to give place them in her care by adoption.

Her tone of voice is noted and not forgotten.

She is able to manage the cares and affairs of the household without strain and duress.

So many women today have a workload that is heavy and long and they have little strength of body to find that balance with being a wife and mother and professional as well. The leisure that they do find (especially at my age) might be to take a nap or just turn the kettle on and brew some tea so that they can put the feet up and go "ahh" for fifteen minutes. There just isn’t much time in the day. But what does it say in Matthew 6:33? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things WILL be added unto you. God will bring order to the chaos a woman sometimes faces each day.

For those who never marry or who are not married, or for those that have no particular home life, Paul shows in 1 Corinthians 7 that they can have ministry. There is a place for everyone and God is careful not to leave any out.

The first duty of all women is, however, to please God, then her husband, followed by her children and finally the ministry. Those who work outside the home should do their work as unto the Lord and in consideration of others (especially those within her home).

As virtuous women each person makes it her choice not to be willful, headstrong, selfish; but humble and respectful, dutiful and full of affection. What is her foundation? Her piety (faithfulness, godliness, piousness, holiness, devotedness, goodness), and her reverent fear and love for God.

Some of her noted attributes could be:

• Love (showing it not speaking it)
• Work (regardless of her place in society, whether or not she is married and how she is tending and feeding her household)
• Caring (finding work, finding food and appropriate clothing, not being wasteful)
• Charitable (Is she an example to her young or grown children? Is she generous and full of charity?)
• Speech (kind, prudent, not gossipy nor slanderous. Firm, but gentle...with the knowledge that any good characteristic is spoiled instantly by an unbridled tongue just as we read in James 3)

Ask yourself these questions and then spend a little time before the Lord God in reflection. He is the one who can lead you and guide you into becoming that woman of virtue he desires us all to become.

1. What kind of woman am I now?
2. What kind of attributes have I now?
3. How can I become the woman God wants me to be?