The Well Rounded Woman

[00:00:19] Greetings and welcome to this latest edition of Become A Competent Biblical Counselor.

[00:00:25] I'm Dr. Dave Jones and today's episode is entitled The Well Rounded Woman.

[00:00:32] We're going to take a look at Proverbs 31.

[00:00:36] Ladies, get your Bibles out. That's right. Turn to the last chapter of Proverbs and now down to verse 10.

[00:00:43] Proverbs 31, the last chapter, beginning with verse 10.

[00:00:48] This is a chapter I think that every woman ought to read and look at at least once a month.

[00:00:54] It doesn't take very long to run through from the 10th verse through the end of the book.

[00:00:59] It's just about 21 chapters there, verses there, and I think that you'll find that those 21 verses are loaded with valuable and practical information for the homemaker.

[00:01:11] So, we're going to take a look at them today and we're going to try to see what God has to say to you.

[00:01:19] Now, some of you are saying, oh my, all that hard stuff he's going to lay on us now,

[00:01:25] all that business of getting up before breakfast and working until after supper.

[00:01:30] And now, wait a minute. It's not all like that, you know.

[00:01:34] There's some of that in it, I'll grant you.

[00:01:37] But there's an awful lot more in this chapter than you can imagine.

[00:01:42] Maybe there will be a number of surprises for you, too, as we go through.

[00:01:45] I hope there will be.

[00:01:47] So, let's go ahead, get your Bible out, and let's get started.

[00:01:51] Now, I'm going to be using the Berkeley translation all the way through here and follow along.

[00:01:58] Otherwise, follow along with whatever Bible you may have.

[00:02:01] Proverbs 31, verse 10 starts out this way.

[00:02:07] Who can find a wife with strength of character?

[00:02:10] She is far more precious than jewels.

[00:02:14] Now, that's a very wonderful verse, isn't it?

[00:02:17] Where the author is saying, boy, let's look for the right kind of gal.

[00:02:22] Let's look for the right kind of wife.

[00:02:25] And he doesn't really call her a woman with strength of character.

[00:02:29] That's sort of an interpretation just as virtuous woman in the King James as the interpretation of the original.

[00:02:36] But literally, in the Hebrew, it says a woman of many parts.

[00:02:40] And what I think he's really getting at here is who can find a well-rounded woman.

[00:02:47] A woman who does all kinds of things.

[00:02:51] Who has many aspects to her personality.

[00:02:54] Who's a many-sided kind of individual.

[00:02:58] What he's going to say, of course, is that she is worth far more than precious jewels.

[00:03:04] But like a jewel that is cut with many facets to it, he's going to take this woman and he's going to spin that jewel around and look at the colors that sparkle from every facet.

[00:03:15] Every side as it catches the light and as it reflects it back to the one viewing it.

[00:03:21] And that's what he's going to do with the woman in Proverbs 31.

[00:03:26] He's going to kind of take a hard look, a hard long look, at all the aspects of her life and see what it is that makes her what she is.

[00:03:36] What is it that makes her tick?

[00:03:38] Why she is such a wonderful woman and far more valuable to her husband and to her children than a precious jewel would be.

[00:03:47] So we're talking about a woman of many parts.

[00:03:50] And he says, or many a-sided woman.

[00:03:53] And the first thing I think we need to see is that when God speaks about a woman, he doesn't just put her into one niche.

[00:04:03] There are a lot of women today and a lot of Christian men also who have the idea that women have one job.

[00:04:10] Only one job.

[00:04:12] They had better excel at that job.

[00:04:14] That one thing that they are to do is to be cooks and washerwoman and raise their children.

[00:04:23] And that's about it.

[00:04:25] And maybe give them a little sex on the side, of course, that as far as having a personality which is well-developed and many-sided,

[00:04:35] they don't even seem to have the kind of concept of a woman.

[00:04:39] Well, the Bible does.

[00:04:41] And the Bible excels.

[00:04:43] The Bible says, extols rather, the woman who has developed every aspect of her personality, who is well-rounded,

[00:04:52] who does have many facets and many angles to this personality of hers.

[00:04:59] She has not just become a dull, uninteresting person who is interested in only one or two things in life.

[00:05:06] But here is where we're going to take a look at this woman.

[00:05:09] One of the things we're going to see about her is that she has so many interests.

[00:05:16] And that's the first thing I think that we need to understand,

[00:05:19] that God wants well-rounded women with many interests.

[00:05:24] He wants all of the gifts that he has given to a woman developed.

[00:05:28] And the point of this is, is not that she should become a career woman outside of her home,

[00:05:34] neglecting her home, or being able to carry on a career while carrying on her house.

[00:05:40] Sure, if it's a certain point in her life, there are certain things she can do outside the home.

[00:05:46] Great.

[00:05:46] But the main point of it is, is that in working with family and working for her husband and working with them as part of the home,

[00:05:55] she is to develop and to use all of those gifts that God has given to her and all the aspects of her personality.

[00:06:03] So she is to be well-rounded, all sides of her personality developed,

[00:06:08] and all of them used in the service of Jesus Christ for her husband and for her children.

[00:06:14] Of course, under God and for his honor.

[00:06:18] Now, the second thing that I think we're going to notice that's of interest is found in verse 11.

[00:06:24] The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will never lack profit.

[00:06:30] She is to be a trustworthy person.

[00:06:33] And if she is trustworthy, then she should be the kind of person,

[00:06:37] or will be the kind of person, in whom the husband can put trust.

[00:06:41] That is, he can entrust into her hands all kinds of things.

[00:06:46] You see, a lot of Christian men have a wrong idea.

[00:06:50] They think that because says that the man is the head of the home,

[00:06:54] that he's the head of the wife, as he does, of course, in Ephesians 5,

[00:06:59] the men think that means that they have to make all the decisions,

[00:07:03] do all the things that have to be done in the home,

[00:07:06] except for a few menial chores, which are then the wife's job.

[00:07:11] Not so.

[00:07:12] As a woman develops and uses every aspect of her personality,

[00:07:17] we're going to see in this passage that that woman ought to be using all of those sides of her personality

[00:07:23] in ways that are far beyond what that kind of a man ever dreamed of.

[00:07:28] And as a man sees that a wife has developed her abilities and developed the gifts that God has given her,

[00:07:35] he ought to continually entrust into her hands more and more responsibilities.

[00:07:42] That doesn't mean to be the head of the home that you have to have and make all the decisions,

[00:07:47] and that you have to do all the things in the home.

[00:07:49] What it really means is that as a good manager of your home,

[00:07:54] as one who is caring for everything that goes on within that home and under that roof,

[00:07:58] you're in touch with everything that everybody else does,

[00:08:02] and you're making those final decisions where they have to be made in some final sense by one person.

[00:08:10] But you are willing, because you see the gifts and the abilities that God has given

[00:08:15] and that others have developed, you are willing to entrust much to those people who have those gifts

[00:08:21] to your children, but particularly to your wife.

[00:08:25] And so, if you're a husband who has a wife, who has a mind like a computer,

[00:08:29] or like a cash register, or something of that sort,

[00:08:32] and you can't count without taking off your shoes and using your toes,

[00:08:36] then you had better turn over those financial records and those mathematical problems to your wife

[00:08:41] and thank the Lord every day that you live that He gave you that kind of a wife,

[00:08:47] instead of struggling around with yourself and counting up the wrong numbers all the time

[00:08:51] and balling up all the checkbooks.

[00:08:54] So, as long as you're in touch with what happens to the money,

[00:08:58] it's not at all wrong for you to use the gifts that God has provided in your wife.

[00:09:04] In fact, you ought to insist that she use those gifts,

[00:09:09] and you ought to insist that she become this well-rounded and well-developed person

[00:09:14] of whom all of her gifts are being used for Christ and for your home.

[00:09:20] Lord, we thank you for this today, that you have talked about women as well-rounded,

[00:09:25] and we pray that you will help the wives who are listening here

[00:09:29] to develop their gifts for Christ's sake.

[00:09:32] Amen.

[00:09:32] So, to the women I say, use your gifts.

[00:09:38] God has given you those gifts.

[00:09:40] Use those gifts that He's given you.

[00:09:43] And husbands, help your wife to identify those gifts if she hasn't done so already,

[00:09:48] and be thankful that God gave you a person with those gifts

[00:09:52] that you just may need in your own life.

[00:09:55] So, thanks for listening, and make it a blessed day.

[00:09:58] Amen.