Proverbs 31:22

Proverbs 31:22  She quilts her own bedspreads.  She dresses like royalty in gowns of finest cloth.

Hooray! We finally get to the verse that gives us biblical backing to support our quilting habits.  Okay, not really, but it was fun for a moment.  What really is fun is the time we are spending working on quilts after our time of Bible study.  What a great way to spend time with friends - studying the Word of God and making quilts together. LOVE IT!!

So, here we get a picture of a woman who not only finds the wool, but she also spins it and twists it into fabric, then uses that fabric to make clothes for herself, her family, and to sell.  Now we learn that she makes all the coverings for the beds and that the clothes she makes are of the finest cloth.  Is this an unattainable perfection we are seeing?  Can we live up to this level too? 

Obviously I am not going to go out and spin my own wool and make my own fabric - although that would be fun, I don't think I am going to give up the convenience of shopping at the quilt shop for fabric.  And most definately I am not going to make my own clothes, just too convenient to get them at the store.  However, what do we do with the items we purchase and the items we make.  What care and effort do we put into the appearance of our homes and ourselves? 

Ohh this one is kicking me in the butt...perhaps I should quit typing and go make my bed or something......There that's better!  Perhaps I can make a bigger effort to make my bed everyday, to teach my kids to make their beds everyday, to make a beautiful quilt for my bed (now that sounds like fun!).

A question in the study guide was to descibe the first impressions your physical place may be sending out.  The first impressions of our home is probably - cluttered and messy with pawprints, fingerprints, sticky floors, baskets of laundry, and toys everywhere - first impression: lived in!  No show home here... and not that I would want it to be, but geez could I at least have the satisfaction of a clean room before it gets trashed five minutes later. 

What can we do to improve the appearance of our homes?  Well, even before this lesson I have really been trying to put in the extra effort to wake up to a clean (well cleanish) house every morning.  The idea being that if it starts clean every day, then it should be relatively easy to keep clean throughout the day and be clean-ish when we go to bed.  I will let you know how it works out - we are still trying to get to that clean-ish starting place.  The point is that we are trying, we are putting in the effort to make a change.

But what of this women who "dresses like royalty in gowns of finest cloth".  Are we to dress the same?  I remember my high school grad gown and my wedding gown and how on those two days I did indeed feel like I was dressed like royalty.  But I also was incredibly grateful to get out of those gowns and back into something much more comfortable.  No, I don't think we are to dress like royalty, let's leave that to the royals and the celebrities.  So where does that leave us?  The Bible gives us the answers we need...

1 Timothy 2:9-10 And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.


1 Peter 3:3-4 Don't be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.