Virtues of Womanhood

Knead It!: Start Making Bread at Home Today (Hobby Farm Home)

Kirstie's Homemade Home

A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life: Creative Ideas and Real-life Tips for Making Your Home Lived-in, Warm, Welcoming and ... ... Worrying About Everything Being Just Right!)

Making a House Your Home: The Essential Guide to Modern Day Homemaking

The Complete Practical Encyclopedia of Needlecrafts: A Complete Practical and Inspirational Guide to Traditional and Contemporary Handiwork Techniques with 200 Craft Projects

Tapas: Delicious Little Dishes from Spain (Cookery)

Home Cooking Made Easy
Baking Made Easy
Good Housekeeping Cookery Book: The Cook's Classic Companion
Changing Family Values: Difference, Diversity and the Decline of Male Order


When I was a young woman I asked God what was I to do with the hands he had given me.  Clearly it came to me that he could use me best as a wife and a mother to bring comfort to the people.

OK, at the time I was neither married nor in a relationship which was a challenge in itself.  However over the years I have grown much in my experiences and heart aches and have learned much at the feet of my heavenly father.

When I was a young woman I did not really consider wearing a miniskirt to be risky - just part of normal dressing in the 1970's however when looking back at my behaviour and my lack of self respect and dignity I can see that there were many things I did then that I would cringe at now.

Many young girls today do not think twice about having a sexual relationship with their boyfriends, nor do the boys consider it to be out of place to sleep with every girl they come across.  However here is the problem with this kind of lifestyle, we bring heaps of misery on ourselves and our families by becoming parents before we are ready, we are putting ourselves at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, we can get caught up in a most foul place surrounded by people who are involved in drugs, drink and total debauchery.  If we were to really take stock of our so called adventures into the world of love and sex we would be much more cautious.  Free love is not an option - it is not free there is always a high price to pay, in unwanted pregnancies and single parenthood.

Better we stand back and take a look at ourselves as young women and try to make more well thought out decisions.  Is it wise for me to go out alone at night with a boy who you have just met at a party without really knowing anything about him/her.  Better to take your time and get to know the person amongst friends and group activities rather than sneaking off to some dive of a discotheque or some such place.  Better to be safe in the confines of your family and friends than out there with the darkness and uncertainty - I for one wish I had been more discerning in my activities. 

Looking back, had I had the teaching of the virtuous wife as in Proverbs 31  I think that my life would have turned out differently.

Let us look at what this wonderful detailed pattern of living as a Woman of Virtue  - Capable Wife was like, perhaps we can learn something from it for ourselves.

(10) Who can find a capable wife? Her value is far beyond that of pearls.
(11) Her husband trusts her from his heart, and she will prove a great asset to him.
(12) She works to bring him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
(13) She procures a supply of wool and flax and works with willing hands.
(14) She is like those merchant vessels, bringing her food from far away.
(15) It's still dark when she rises to give food to her household and orders to the young women serving her.
(16) She considers a field, then buys it, and from her earnings she plants a vineyard.
(17) She gathers her strength around her and throws herself into her work.
(18) She sees that her business affairs go well, her lamps stays lit at night.
(19) She puts her hands to the staff with the flax, her fingers hold the spinning rod.
(20) She reaches out to embrace the poor and opens her arms to the needy.
(21) When it snows, she has no fear for her household, since all of them are doubly - clothed.
(22) She makes her own quilts, she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
(23) Her husband is known at the city gates when he sits with the leaders of the land.
(24) She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchants with sashes.
(25) Clothed with strength and dignity, she can laugh at the day to come.
(26) When she opens her mouth, speaks wisely, on her tongue is loving instruction.
(27) She watches how things go in her house, not eating the bread of idleness.
(28) Her children arise; they make her happy; her husband too, as he praises her.
(29) "Many women had done wonderful things but you surpass them all"
(30) Charm can lie, beauty can vanish, but a woman who fears Adonai (God) should be praised.
(31) Give her share in whatever she produces; let her works speak her praises at the city gates.

When you read this and understand the amount of incredible things that this woman is capable of doing and realise that you too are a woman in you is also the ability to be such a person.

I prayed years ago that I could become like her, I have a long way to go, but am learning what it means.  We need to repent of the things we have done contrary to Gods way of doing things, as we as young women demand to have our own way, as we jump up and down and demand our rights - what rights are you jumping up and down for - the right to live as a woman or as some slave.

As a free woman under God - living Gods way is more freedom than what you could imagine.
Behaving in such a way as to bring glory to your husband and not shame. - when we have seen women drunk and disorderly and flashing everything it makes us curl up inside, that is because we are intrinsically aware that this kind of behaviour is not becoming to any one.  Therefore for us as women we should be able to see for ourselves, if we make an exhibition of ourselves in a public place it is only going to bring shame and degradation to our lives.  Better to make the change and recognise that you are more valuable than that.

I can remember watching a few years ago a programme about Laddettes, and felt so ashamed of their behaviour yet I could see that I behaved in a similar fashion when I was young - it only brings shame and degradation.  For me it was not until I became a mother did I really start to see that things needed to change.  Drinking and smoking and being abusive with others was not the way forward.  Turning to God for help gave me the courage to face myself and get my self back on track as a woman.  Recognising that I had skills that were worth something to me, being able to sew and knit and cook gave me the means to make sure that my child and I did not need to suffer without clothes as I could make my own clothes and I could cook and clean and keep house these things I could do, I needed to do them well in order to give me and my daughter the start that was needed.

For me as an older woman now hopefully can encourage younger women to look at themselves and recognise that they are more than just pieces of meat hanging on the tray waiting to be picked up and taken off.  Better to build your home building skills and become creative and use your talents wisely for when the right man comes into your life who is looking for wifely material he is not going to be getting some drunken laddett who just cannot even cook an egg. 

I can help you find your feet on the wrung of life to discover the skills you do not feel you have.  It is in every girl to make a home, it is in every boy to make a home their instinct is to provide the resources from without, the girls resources are within her to make her home beautiful and bright and cheerful and take care of the children and look after the garden.  There is much a woman can do and it is high time that young women could see themselves as God intended them to be - helpmates and lovers of their husbands. 

Here are just a few books that may help you to get started on the journey of discovery of what it means to be woman.