The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands. Proverbs 14:1
Yesterday I outlined for you the foolish (married) woman who tears her house down. Today I want to focus on being the wise woman who builds her house. This woman is either married or single because both are house building throughout their lives.
The only foundation that a godly woman can build upon is Christ and the principles He has given us in His Word, the Bible.
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22 (NASB)
As a Christian, to attempt to build your home on any other foundation will reap harvests of unrighteousness in your life.
When I think of “fitting together” and “growing into” I think of pieces that are being hammered and chiseled, planed and sanded, and sometimes cut and sawed until they are the right dimensions for what is being built. With all this construction there comes discomfort and even pain in the life of a person who is the “project.”
There is sometimes incredible pain as the Lord shows us areas of our character that need to be torn down and disposed of in order to build an honorable and house that brings honor and glory to Him.
The wise woman does not fight against the Lord in these processes but submits herself to them, trusting and believing that He is working out His good within her. His objective is to make each of us more like Jesus Christ and plainly spoken- many of us need a whole lot of work.
We women can be very foolish and shallow in our interactions in daily life. Our affections are often set upon things that are worldly and temporary and have nothing to do with godliness or biblical growth and change. We spend inordinate amounts of time doing things that are meaningless from an eternal perspective. Our hours and days are given to us to serve God and serve others. God does tell us to enjoy the financial fruits of labors but often our resources are given to purely benefit self.
Our focus has to be reoriented, and our affections changed to those of God. This does not usually happen on our own; we need some divine intervention to realize that we are wasting these precious limited hours and days of life.
A wise woman is interested in the things of God, and in becoming who God has ordained her to be. The Bible describes godly women as wise (Proverbs 11:16), noble (Proverbs 12:4), hardworking, generous, without fear, industrious, compassionate, careful (Proverbs 31), internally beautiful with a gentle and quiet spirit, (1 Peter 3:16), modest (1 Timothy 2:9) trustworthy (1 Timothy 3:11) and in many other ways.
How much time do you devote to building these qualities into your heart and life? More importantly, how much time in godly pursuits versus the other things in life you are involved in?
These are things you must examine, and ask the Lord to examine your heart as well.