Ideal or Idol?

I carefully mention her…In fact I have a love/hate relationship with her.   What do you do with a girl like that?  I mean it isn’t a mistake God wanted us to know about her.

You know who I’m talking about…yes, Lemuel’s mom.  Also known as: The Proverbs 31 Women.  What didn’t she do?  How did she do it?  If she were living in my era, would she hang out with me or turn her nose up at me in disgust?

Then I have to consider do I see her as the ideal or do I make her an idol?

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Proverbs 31 was written by King Lemuel.  Many moms like myself, avoid this chapter feeling discouraged and shamed for not “measuring up.”  While there are other moms who have not only memorized verses 10 – 31, but have placed these verses on their frig and made it their life’s goal.

Whether you have made The Proverbs 31 Mom your ideal or idol, I think an important consideration is to recognize we are NOT her.  God designed us to love and serve Him as an individual not as a carbon copy of someone else. Our lives were chosen to live in the 20^th Century.  With modern conveniences, we won’t necessarily need to bring our food from afar, worry about our families being cold, or selling the garments we made from the linen we wove.

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Our goal is to be who God created us to be.  We are to care for those God has placed in our homes.  We don’t need to compare ourselves (or our children) to another mom or to King Lemuel’s mom. 

It is believed by many commentators that King Lemuel is actually King Solomon.  If this is true, than the Proverbs 31 mom is none other than, Bathsheba.  Do you see God’s grace in this possibility?  Do you now recognize that even the Proverbs 31 mom wasn’t perfect?  She probably didn’t always know what the family would have for dinner.  She may have had a short fuse on occasion.

Bathsheba was blessed by a son who enjoyed a forgiven mom.  A mom who was characterized by those things he recorded in Proverbs 31.  This wasn’t a perfect mom, but a mom who was well loved and appreciated. 

Let’s not make Bathsheba an idol. Rather what is recorded about her is ideal. I challenge you to read through Proverbs 31: 10 – 31 and find two things you admire most about her.  My prayer for you is your children will one day “rise up and call you blessed!”  In fact, I bet they will think of YOU as ideal!