Thursday, May 9, 2013

May 10, 2013

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27

Today I was given the opportunity to have prayer with a man who was getting ready to pull his wife of more than 40 years off life-support. They don't teach you how to do that in school. Only through the Holy Spirit and great empathy can you have a clue how to pray.
 
In those milliseconds while I was trying to gather my thoughts my mind went to the precious women in my life and how much they mean to me. Trying to imagine how hard it would be to lose one of them is all I needed to inspire the prayer.
 
Proverbs 31 lauds the virtues of a godly woman. Verse 27 praises her for the way she guards the spiritual and emotional welfare of her family. She builds a hedge around them and I have been highlighting some of those hedges.
 
There was the prayer hedge and the personal relationship hedge and the principles hedge. In this post I want to share several more hedges a godly mother can build.
 
The Pattern Hedge
 
A godly mother not only teaches good principles but she lives them out daily to demonstrate a pattern for living. Teaching is instructing but it is also illustrating.
 
The Partnership Hedge
 
A woman of virtue understands the importance of partnering with God in shaping the hearts and minds of her children. She also teams with her spouse in building the hedge of safety around their kids.
 
The Penalty Hedge
 
In an era when most are trying to escape responsibility and avoid the consequences of their actions, godly mothers enforce penalties for wrong behavior. People who are loving punish those they love when they do wrong.
 
The Privieges Hedge
 
Equally important as punishing bad behavior is the practice of rewarding good behavior by extending privileges. Reinforce what is right by catching them being good.
 
What hedges are you building around your family?