Proverbs 14:1-2
Every wise woman builds her household,
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord,
but the one who is perverted in his ways despises him.
I have an amazing wife. If you didn’t know that, I do and I’m proud of her. She runs a blog for moms that makes this blog look like Mayberry by comparison. If you’ve never checked it out and you have two X chromosomes, you should go check it out. It will not be a waste of your time.
What she talks about is what she does at home, building our house. Of course we don’t mean that in the literal since. Our house was built when we bought it. But, in speaking of the only kind of household that matters, she is the chief contractor. She knows how important it is to raise our kids in a way that honors God and is preparing them for a life of success. That’s why our two older kids knew how to read before they started kindergarten. While most kids in preschool are learning the alphabet for the first time, ours are reading.
Our kids are blessed to have her as their mom. But, I understand that there are many kids out there who aren’t so lucky. There are those out there who live on the other side of this proverb. They are more in business of tearing their household down than they are in the business of building it up. With their nasty words and selfish ways, they constantly put themselves and their own ambitions ahead of their household. I know we live in a different time now than when this proverb was written. And I know that by saying a lot of this, you will have instantly put me into a box of being an old school, legalistic, fundamentalist Christian. I’m sorry you feel that way. Maybe you feel that way because you feel guilty about the kind of mother you are being? I don’t know.
What I do know is that if it were solely up to me, our kids would be having a rough go of it. We’d all be on the biggest loser. While we do live in a different time, and there are many moms out there who don’t have anyone else to help them…and there are many moms who have to work to provide for their kids…the expectation for mothers is still the same. Just because the odds are stacked up against you doesn’t mean you don’t have to be a mother. It just means you’re going to have to work harder at it.
And we need you to. By we, I mean the world and society and culture in which we live. We need mothers to be in the business of building their houses instead of tearing them down. Build up your kids instead of tearing them down. Build up your spouse instead of tearing them down. Build up your boss and co-workers instead of tearing them down. Build up your ex-husband instead of tearing him down. Building up is positive, tearing down is negative. Building up moves you forward, tearing down moves you backward.
Walk in uprightness as a mother, fear the lord. When you do this and you do this in front of your kids, they will know they are being loved by a mother who wants to build the house by God’s standards and not the worlds. And trust me, his ways are better. Sure the code is higher than that of your local building code, but the end result is far greater by comparison.
