Hello!

I am very excited about this series. I have been enjoying digging into this character so far and its just the first scripture! I hope you will enjoy it too. If you would like, join me in this prayer.

My Prayer:

God please open my eyes and my heart to your word. Transform me into the Godly woman that you want me to be. Direct me. As I meditate on this scripture help me see you and see how you want me to respond. Mold me this week and throughout this series, into a "wife of noble character" I know you love my husband so much and want for him a wife who seeks your wisdom over any other advice on wifehood, which is constantly being thrown at me from every direction. I know that I have to be intentional and seek you first. Thank you father. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Proverbs 31:10 NIV

 "A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies."

Noble Character, I seem to have skipped that part in the past and almost change the scripture to say "A wife is worth far more than rubies" but that's not what God says, and that is not what King Lemuels mother prays for...

When I here "noble" I think about the Bareans Paul came across in Acts 17:10-12

"As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men."

Why were the Bereans noble?

Because they "received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures everyday" I remember studying the bible in 2008/2009 and some wonderful sisters showing me this scripture. They taught me the Three E's.

The Three E's to noble character:

1. Eagerly
2. Examine (scripture)
3. Everyday

This is different than reading your bible everyday..

Eagerness. That's like the "Oh, I can't wait!!" kind of excitement. It can be hard just getting into the habit of reading my bible daily but am I excited about my time with God? Am I eager to hear what he wants me to hear and to get to know him a bit better everyday?

Examine.

Who, when, what, where, why, how....I think context is so important when you are reading the bible. It can be easy to read the bible and not connect, but I have found that understanding the "W" questions help me get a sense of the context. Especially the when question, things were a lot different back then, than now. When the bible says something like "Then they went to Jerusalem" it is so easy to accept that and move on but when you think about when this was and you realize they had to walk and carry their belongings and take their livestock and so much more, you get a little more out if it because you realize the perseverance and faith they had. Now that is just an example, but you get the idea, right?

Everyday.

This can be the easiest of the three or this can be the hardest. What I mean by that is it can be really hard to get into the habit of reading daily, but once you do the hard part is not doing it just out of habit and focus more on the eager heart and examining scriptures.

Honestly, right now this is hard for me. I have fallen out of the habit. I have not been in my bible everyday this week. I go through periods where I am reading daily and I have slumps too. I find that my slumps are when life gets a little out of rythym. I am staying up later, sleeping in later and rushing to work forgetting my time with God. Lately Mark and I have been taking weekend trips to visit people and it is so easy to forget God, or feel uncomfortable hibernating in my room in the mornings when everyone else is sitting around the table enjoying coffee and eggs. Then during the week I work 40 hours and I'm catching up with some of the things I couldn't do over the weekend. But this scripture really inspires me because I know the first step in being a noble wife for my husband (and for myself and everyone else who sees our marriage) is getting in the Word daily. Not only that, I believe it is key to having a relationship with God.

Proverbs 31 Study Series

I just love the Proverbs 31 Woman! Every time I read about her I am so inspired. Okay, well I know she is not a real woman... more like an ideal woman, but the picture of this ideal woman inspires me. I also love that the passage is so incredibly practical. It has been especially helpful in my role as wife. It's incredible that every time I read it, I leave my quiet times knowing exactly where I can grow and not only that, but having direction on how.

The thing is, with me anyway, I have to keep revisiting her because when I don't focus on her I sorta slip.... I know will never be just like to proverbs 31 woman and I will always have room to grow in my role as a Godly woman and wife, but in 10 years from now I want to look back with confidence knowing I was intentional in my marriage and in my relationship with God and actually see that I have grown.

So.. I decided to do a bible study series on her. Every Monday (for until we get through the passage) I will be sharing little bits of what I have learned so far in studying out the Proverbs 31 woman. I hope to grow through this study and plan on focusing in depth on each scripture and really build conviction.

This is so exciting! Usually I break it down by scripture and study one each day, but my intention for this is to really meditate on a scripture or two for the whole week and practice it daily for the week and then build on it each week. We will see how it goes.... and maybe if you're reading along hopefully you will find some value in it too :)

See ya next Monday!

-Laura

Day 1

This is my first post on One Day at a Time. I have had such a hard time starting a blog because I feel overwhelmed. I want my blog to be like the blogs I love to read and I just don't know how. I am realizing it doesn't happen over night. It happens "one day at a time."

I am not even exactly sure what I want to blog about. I have so many interests. I just want to blog about what I feel like talking about at the time. I don't want to lock myself into one genre, even though all the advice I see out there says I should focus on one audience. I think it will be okay this way and along the way, I may find one topic that I love blogging about but for now now I will experiment. If anyone is reading this, I hope you will stick around and see what happens with my blog.

Thanks,
Laura