Leading up to Mother’s Day, this week’s devos were written by my best friend and wife, Grace, and our oldest daughter, Ashley, as part of their new book ‘Fearlessly Feminine’. Get your copy for a gift of any amount during the month of May by clicking here.
“A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.” – Proverbs 14:1
What is wisdom? Wisdom is a deep understanding, keen discernment, and a capacity for sound judgment that comes from the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of wisdom (Ex. 31:3, Is. 11:2, Eph. 1:17, 1 Cor. 2:13). Folly, on the other hand, is lacking in common sense, judgment, and discretion. If we live our lives not desiring to honor God and not considering the effects on others, we are being foolish and doing harm to ourselves and others.
We all have areas of foolishness and wisdom in our lives that we must ask the Lord to bring to light so we can grow in more wisdom throughout our lives. People who persist in folly become fools (Prov. 1:10-19), but people who pursue wisdom become wiser still (Prov. 13:20). As women, whether single or married, we need to understand the weight of Proverbs 14:1. Our desire can be to “build our home” with love, discipline, creativity, joy, peace, and the fruit of the Spirit, but if we have areas of folly in our lives that we aren’t allowing God to change, we can also be tearing it down at the same time. The key is to be connected to the Holy Spirit who gives wisdom in every area of life (James 1:6-8).
Our mother Eve decided not to listen to God but instead follow her own desire. She chose independence from God, which is sadly a trend for women in our day as well. We should be women of strength in our character, conviction, and passion, but to be independent from God puts us in harm’s way. She trusted Satan’s tempting lies over God’s loving truth and protection over her. Her sin still affects us today, generations later! If we don’t bring our desires and questions to the Lord, we become fools and can affect generations of families.
Opposite of Eve’s perfect Garden, in the days of the Judges, our Bible sister Deborah was in a very imperfect environment where “all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes,” (Judges 17:6, 21:25) yet she chose wisdom. Therefore, no matter what is going on around us, we can choose wisdom when our heart and relationship stay connected to God, the source of all wisdom! By the power of the Holy Spirit, Deborah made different choices than Eve did! We read in chapter 4 of Judges that Deborah was married, a prophetess gaining wisdom from God, the only female judge of Israel (appointed and anointed by God) who sat under a palm where people would go for judgment and wisdom. We don’t see her being power-hungry, rather she served God while not taking credit. She knew her value from God (Core Truth 2, which we talked about yesterday), and obeyed Him, as she called people into action with her plans, direction, and delegation of responsibilities.
Choosing wisdom doesn’t mean life will be easy breezy. In fact, you will face criticism and feel like you are going against the grain often. We need to remember that what God cares about is what we need to care about, and He cares about us walking in wisdom with Him. He will guide us, otherwise people will encourage us, and we will experience the amazing fruit of the Spirit in our lives…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control! Even “Jesus grew in wisdom [emotionally, relationally, mentally] and in stature [physically] and in favor [character, godliness] with God and all the people.” (Luke 2:52)
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s devotional where we contrast the seductive vs. the virtuous woman.
Take some time and read what Proverbs has to say about wise and foolish people from the following verses.
– Wise: Proverbs 2:2-3, 6-7, 9-12; 3:7-8, 13, 17-18; 8:33-36; 31:26
– Foolish: Proverbs 1:24-25, 29-33; 14:7-9, 16-17; 17:12, 16, 21, 25, 28; 18:2, 6-7
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