So, just for the record, the black beans turned out well. I ended up soaking them for about 15 hours then letting them simmer for about 7 hours. We ate them for dinner last night and breakfast this morning and will probably have them for dinner again tonight. Maybe I shouldn’t have made the entire 2lb bag at one time…
Anyways, today’s verse from Proverbs 31 is verse 12: “She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.”
This verse particularly hit me because, being a typical American, I feel entitled to “lazy days”, vacations and sick leave. I mean, it isn’t reasonable or fair to expect me to be the perfect little wife every single day, is it? Even the Bible says to work six days and rest on the seventh, doesn’t it? Yes, we are to model our work after God, who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. But then what is this passage really saying? Sure, I am allowed and, indeed, should rest one day a week, and I think that fits into this passage very well. If I am to “bring good, not harm” to my husband, then I need to sleep and take care of myself. Trust me, if I don’t get my 8 hours, I am not pleasant to be around. However, not sleeping well does not excuse me from my wifely duties. As humans, we tend to make excuses and say,”It is understandable, why so-and so is acting the way they are considering the circumstances…” And I don’t necessarily think there is anything wrong with that…until we start using the same excuses on ourselves. I am much more likely to excuse my own behavior than someone else’s because I know my own motives and I can rationalize why I did what I did. But this verse leaves no room for excuses or rationalization. It says plain out: a wife of noble character will bring her husband good, not harm, all the days of her life. So, either I am a wife of noble character or I’m not, and if I am then I will do my best to bring “good” to my husband every single day…rain, flu, snow, sun, pms….doesn’t matter.
confessions of a {lazy} housewife 