“She does HIM good, and not harm, all the days of her life.” Proverbs 31:12
The object of this wife’s active do-gooding is her husband.
Obviously the Proverbs 31 woman does good to many people—her children, her servants, the poor and needy, the business community. But it seems clear from verse 12—and many other places in Scripture—that the primary priority of the virtuous woman is to do her husband good. He is to be the number one recipient of her efforts and energy.
It’s easy for us as women to get busy trying to do a lot of good for a lot of people—our children, the church, the community. But if we don’t make doing good to our husband our highest priority, or if doing good to others hinders or significantly limits the good we can do our husband, we are not an authentic replica of the Proverbs 31 woman.
Now, I’m not trying to add to your to-do list. Actually, this truth helps to simplify my life. When I put my husband as the first priority (after my relationship with God, of course) it helps me determine what else is important and what is not.
Sad to say, I don’t always do this. Sometimes I am quick to meet my kid’s needs or to agree to do a favor for a friend without considering whether or not it would serve my husband. Serving my children and those in the church is right and important--as we see in the example of the Proverbs 31 woman. But I must remember that I am uniquely gifted and called to do good to my husband first.
Charles Spurgeon describes the excellent wife: “She asks not how her behavior may please a stranger, or how another’s judgment may approve her conduct; let her beloved be content and she is glad.”
I want God’s help to continue to make Brian’s good my first and glad priority.
