"She find wool and flax and busily spins it."
Proverbs 31:13 NLT
Here is a woman who is going to go find what she needs, to do the work, that needs to be done. She's not sitting idly waiting for life to happen. She is out there seeking. Just as she seeks God, the Father, she seeks the work the Lord has purposed her to do.
This has been such an eye-opening and revelatory verse in my own understanding of Proverbs 31 and where it sits in relation to everything that is to come. Here there is almost a subconscious shift from who she's perceived and seen as to what she embodies and what a Proverbs 31 woman is to her core.
Welcome back to the Proverbs 31 woman Bible study blog where we are courageously diving in now to what it actually means, or more what we would actually do as proverb 31 women.
In the ESV translation, the verbiage is "she seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." In some ways, I almost prefer this version as I like the fact that you can TRULY understand that she is a willing participant in life. She's not only out there seeking what needs to be found, but she wants to. She desires showing up in and to the life God has breathed in her. The proverbs 31 woman is willing! She makes an active choice every single day to be this person, and the active choice she makes doesn't fight and bring tension within her spirit.
She understands what she needs to do, what falls on her shoulders, what are her responsibilities, and she is not only active but I like to believe she is actually pro-active o the things she/her household needs. She doesn't just let life happen to her, and pass her by, and know what her people need and yet wait for them to tell her, she is going after what she knows as truth and what she personally is looking for.
The willingness denotes a positive, optimistic point-of-view, because she is desiring to do these things. She is working with her hands and not fussing or complaining or sitting in resentment or tension, but actually WANTING to do the work in front of her (whatever that may be).
Willingly-- adverb. readily; of ones own free will. (voluntarily; "You're perfectly happy to do it.")
She isn't riding on the high waves of external happiness, she is internally positive and filled with the joy of the LORD to do what she's been called to do. She doesn't do things begrudgingly, and instead she does all she needs to do with enthusiasm and love. She finds God, and in God she finds life, and in turn, life finds her.
