The Wise Woman Builds Her House — Part 7 — Conclusion: Reference Card, Prayer
*This is for women wanting to improve their marriages and not for women who are being abused and/or whose children are being abused. If that is you, please seek safety immediately.
The Wise Woman Builds Her House Series at a Glance:
1. Foundation — Our Thoughts, The Truth, and Prayers
5. S — Service-oriented ('ezer)
7. Conclusion — Reference Card, Prayer (you are here)
A Quick-Reference Card for the Busy Day
If you'd like to carry the essence of RAISING your home on a notecard, here is the key verse and the acronym:
"The wise woman builds her house [on a foundation of godly precepts, and her household thrives], but the foolish one [who lacks spiritual insight] tears it down with her own hands [by ignoring godly principles]."
— Proverbs 14:1 (AMP)
Reverent(hupatassō) — gentle, peaceful spirit; fear God, not man.
Affectionate(phileō) — tender, friendly, on-purpose love; choose phileō.
Intimate(isha) — wonder and awe; pray for in-love-ness.
Service-oriented(‘ezer) — do him good, refuse to do him harm.
Excellent(chayil) — grow in wisdom, steward what God has given.
One Last Word
Your job is not to grow your marriage — that is what Christ does. As Paul said: one sows, another waters, but only God makes the plant grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)
Your job is to listen to God — through His Word first, and through prayer; and then, filtered by those, through the circumstances and people He has placed in your path. And then, act. One moment at a time, forsaking all doubt and all contentiousness, all childish hardness and all bitterness. This is hard work, building your house — and God has His sleeves rolled up too. He is always there to guide, direct, and strengthen you. Always. (Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 41:13, Matthew 28:20)
He made you because He delights in you, and delights to know you, and love you, and shape you into who He made you to become as His daughter. He will lead you in your marriage. He will lead you in your life. (Psalm 139:13–16, Zephaniah 3:17, Jeremiah 31:3, Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 6:18)
May you joyfully follow His lead, by His strength. And may God establish the work of your hands for you. Yes, may He establish the work of your hands. (Psalm 90:17)
A Note on the Translation
Every Scripture in this series is from the Amplified Bible (AMP), chosen for its faithful expansion of the Hebrew and Greek behind the English text.
Scripture quotations are from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. All rights reserved.
With Gratitude
This series would not exist without the women God has used to shape my understanding of how, as wives, we can RAISE our homes:
Toria Peterson — Creator of Wives of the Word and Leader of Mom To Mom Ministry at Church of the Apostles, Atlanta — whose Wives of the Word workshop was transformational for me, and whose teaching first introduced me to the Greek and Hebrew words behind the wife's calling.
Marabel Morgan — Creator of The Total Woman workshop series in the 1970s and the book by the same name — whose memorable four-pronged approach for Christian wives has proved clear and helpful for me: Accept, Admire, Adapt, Appreciate. She has shown generations of wives that joyful, intentional devotion to one's husband is both biblical and beautiful.
Stormie Omartian — Author of The Power of a Praying Wife — whose faithful use of Scripture has strengthened my own faith in God's goodness and sovereignty, and who taught me to pray first — before trying to do or fix anything on my own.
And the Deep Kitchen Clean of My Heart was helped along tremendously by the wonderfully frank and honest classic Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards.
Soli Deo gloria.
A wise woman builds her house.