Proverbs 31:13 (New International Reader’s Version)

She chooses wool and flax.
She loves to work with her hands.

The beginning of this verses is different depending on the translation you look at.  Certain translations say She SEEKS wool and Flax.

seek (v.) – 1. to search thoroughly; to search every place: 2. to try to obtain

She doesn’t grab the first thing she finds JUST so she can get on to the next task, she seeks the best that she can for her family.  Now, I am pretty confident that she knows the difference in quality and if she came upon a good deal at the 1st or 2nd place, I believe she would have been wise with her time and grabbed it up and gone on to her next task.  I don’t take her as being one who would waste time or money.

I remember in college, once of the classes I was taking was TEXTILES.  I will never forget one of the tests- the teacher would hand each row a piece of fabric and once the first gal had felt it she would pass it to the person behind her  and so on.  You had to write down if the piece was a blend or not, and the type/s of fabric-cotton, silk, rayon…  If you wrote down that it was a blend-you had to put what you thought the blend consisted of and what % you though each was.  This was totally done by feeling the fabric for a few seconds.  We did this with multiple pieces of fabric, one after another.  Would you be able to go to your closet and feel the fabric of several garments and guess what type of fabric, if it was a blend and a % of consistency?  You should try it.  She knows her fabric and the quality and she isn’t going to JUST settle.

When you are on the search for something for your family-is it done haphazardly or are you earnestly seeking the best deals.  Personally I do not clip coupons on a consistent, motivated basis–for several reasons.  1 When I have tried, they sit there and take up space so it is a waste of my clipping time. 2 I feel like I am wasting so much time, searching for all the coupons.  I admire people who go shopping and come home with $300 worth of groceries and spend $60.  I do try to be a wise shopper, and I have a form and I have the prices listed for the normal prices I pay and the size/ounces, so if I come upon a good deal I can whip out my trusty sheets and check, if it is a good deal I will stock up. I went grocery shopping last night and skinless, boneless chicken was on sale BUY 1 Get 1 FREE.  It was a little more per pound that  my normal price but at B1G1 it was a steal so I loaded up, getting the largest packages they had and got home with 10 packages of chicken, each container with  2 lbs or a little over.  I also bought fish, spaghetti and several other items that were BG1.  If I have time-I didn’t yesterday,  I will look up coupons on line and see if there are any deals.  My favorite site to visit is Southern Savors and if you aren’t from this part of the country she has a link to a gal that does a similar things with stores in the Midwest.

The second part of this verse is different depending on the translation, you study.  Some say she willingly works with her hands.

willing (adj.) – 1. cheerfully consenting or ready: 2. disposed or inclined; prepared: 3. acting or ready to act gladly; eagerly compliant: (Matthew 26:41).: 4. done, given, accepted, or borne voluntarily or ungrudgingly: 5. not brought about by coercion or force

I don’t know about you but I LOVE to work with my hands.  I am a DIY kind of girl.  What do your hands say?

She is n’t keeping score and thinking ‘My Family OWES me for all that I am doing today”.  She does it willingly and out of love and she does it with JOY.  It isn’t a task that she does with a frown and gripping going on.

I remember a game we had when I was a young girl.  It was a piece of wood and had 2 metal rods attached to it, that were at an angle.  A large metal ball was placed at the end of the rods and you would spread those rods apart and get the ball rolling up the rods.  You would then drop the ball into one of the crevices.  The higher up the rods, you got the ball, the more points you got.  I could play it for hours and I was really good at it.  I was constantly challenging myself.  I remember my Dad saying something, one time about how good I was at it and wondered what I would do, as an adult, because he thought it would be something with my hands-somehow I ended in as a SALES TRAINER, but I was always doing projects with my hands in my free time. I just need to break out and start an interior decorating business in all my spare time.

My husband will take my hand and look at it and rub it and say “I Love your hands”  and I tell him all the time “I love your hands” .
Prince Charming and Cheri’s hands on our Wedding Day

I love the shape of his hands and his fingers. My father grew up with his Mom and an older brother and sister.  His parents were divorced when he was 2 years old, so he didn’t have a father around teaching him things.  His Mom remarried when he was a teenager but his step-dad was pretty quiet, although he knew a lot and my Dad was a little unhappy about this union–I guess he was still hoping his parents would get back together.  When I married my husband, I enjoyed how much he knew about things–like motors and electricity.  I love learning new things.  My Dad still relies on my husband for knowledge in areas that he didn’t learn about.  I love my parents but I am very different from both of them.  My Dad is super quiet, VERY ARTISTIC-he retired from Hallmark Cards; my mom is very welcoming and generous, she is a FABULOUS COOK.  I am not saying I am nothing like them but even my husband will say how did you turn out the way you did with the parents you grew up with.  I am very outgoing, very competitive, not afraid to pick something up and try it–if I want to try it.  I don’t have any desire to bungee jump or sky dive though.  I see something and say I CAN MAKE THAT.  I love working with my husband on projects but I also know his time is limited and if I want it done, I need to figure out how to get it done.  It’s not that I think I can do it better, many times his ideas are better than mine but if I want it done on my schedule, I need to get my hands dirty.

A person’s hands tell you a lot about them.  A farmer’s hands look very different than an engineer’s hands.  An art teacher’s hands look very different from a massage therapist’s hands.  A famer’s rough, rugged and sun tanned hands doesn’t mean they work harder than a stay at home Mom who cooks and cleans and schedules and plans the families events, who loves on her children and cares for their boo boos.  You can’t judge a person by their hands.

I used to sell jewelry — real jewelry for a jewelry store, when I was in college.  You never judged a person when they walked in.  You might have a business man who was dressed to the 10, who applied for credit and got denied and have a farmer in overalls come in and plop down cash.

She chooses wool and flax.
She loves to work with her hands.

I bet she grabbed that wool and flax and went to work on her projects, knocking them out, marking them off her TO DO list.  I bet she even added some great embellishments of great french parisian design or beachy themes or shabby chic designs to everything she did–she was the Knock Off QUEEN.  If etsy had been around she probably would have had her own shop and her own website–DON’T YOU?