Day 44 5/5

So, I am back in my study of Proverbs 31:12. Today I am going to utilize my NASB study Bible and look at the notes and/or scripture references listed for this verse and just go from there and do a little study to see where it takes me.

The first reference listed is...Prov 18:22 "A man's greatest treasure is his wife--she is a gift from the LORD."   I thought it was cool that my Bible noted that this idea of a blessing is later developed further for the reader and it is clearly something very important to be hammered out in this book.

Another reference is Prov 19:14 which reads "You may inherit all you own from your parents, but a sensible wife is a gift from the LORD."  I never really looked at myself as a gift to my husband. I would like to be one he does not regret getting:)

 My journey continued on with a reference for Prov 12:4  "An excellent wife is the crown of her husband." also Prov 4:9 "She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty." I parked on these verses for awhile and also read Song of Solomon a little (3:11) to get a better understanding of the wedding crown thing. I had a beautiful revelation of me being my husband's crown.

Like a crown, I should be beautiful to him, dignified, strong, and trustworthy. I should compliment him and help him to shine for the Lord and, like a crown, I should make him proud to call me his wife. I kept envisioning a real king and it gave me a cool image that I should be my husband's finishing touch that completes him, like a king's crown is to him. 

So, as I dwell on this, I feel challenged by the question...

"What does it mean for me to be my husband's crown every single day? I drew a big ole crown on my paper to help remind me of this.

I'm fortunate to have my husband's seminary materials easy accessible so I decided to read a commentary of this verse to continue my study.  I went to Bullock's: An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books.

It basically gave thoughts on Prov 31 as a whole mentioning that Lemuel most likely was not an Isrealite king and that it had unique grammatical structure, in that the poem was an acrostic one- meaning each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. The commentary also makes a point that this chapter ties in well with the overall theme of Proverbs, mainly of fearing the Lord is the key to wisdom. Also, he observes that this is neat to be included in scripture because the "joyful yoke of religious observation is upon women too" and that was uncommon to write about. It empowered me in the sense that I have a spiritual obligation and responsibility as a woman, wife, and mother:)

Thanks God, what an amazing journey. I didn't want to stop, but my little guys are up.