P31 Challenge: Day 9

First off, I have to apologize for such a late post!

It's Valentine's Day which, for me, entailed catching up on sleep because Ira has had me up about every 2 hours for the last few nights, then cleaning the house like crazy and preparing for a nice dinner at home. And then we ended up going out. Also, in light of the fact that Ira hasn't slept through the night in probably over a week, I omitted his nap today completely, so that was 2 hours of peace and quiet I didn't get. But here I am. I made a commitment and I'm determined not to let you all (and myself) down. No excuses. 

Today's verse has nothing to do with Valentine's Day: 

¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable, 

   and her lamp does not go out at night. 

You know what I admire about her? She's a business savvy lady. 

It doesn't say "she delegates her responsibilities and learns that her trading is profitable." It says "she sees.." 

I wasn't sure if this reference to "her lamp" not going out at night means that she stays up all night working her business (which, in context, makes sense.) Or if it refers to the luxury of her lamp literally not going out. As to say, she brings in enough of a profit for her family that they do not have to be conservative with their candles. 

So I looked up a commentary, and it pretty much eludes to both: 

 "She is careful to fill up time, that none of that be lost. When day-light is done, she does not then think it time to lay by her work, as those are forced to do whose business lies abroad in the fields (Psalms 104:23), but her business lying within-doors, and her work worth candle-light, with that she lengthens out the day; and her candle goes not out by night,Proverbs 31:18. It is a mercy to have candle-light to supply the want of day-light, and a duty, having that advantage, to improve it. We say of an elaborate piece, It smells of the lamp." commentary

By the way, this is pretty interesting to read through. There is a school of thought, apparently, that believe that the from verse 10 on these are NOT quotes from King Lemuel's mother, but rather a poem used for instruction because the verses are written in such a way to represent letters in an alphabetical order. Hmm? 

From the time I was 15 until the time I had Ira (which was about 6 years) I worked. Maybe not always full time, but I did work Monday through Friday and my days ended at about 6pm. I would cram all of my housework into the hours I was not at work or busy with ministry. Weekends were my time to catch up on things. 

It was a total adjustment for me when I became a stay-at-home mommy. It's really weird at first because you feel like you have nothing to do all day because you're so used to doing it all at night. And then, after a while, the days kind of blur together and you feel like you don't really have a clock-in, clock-out kind of schedule. Maybe I get a little down time when the babies are sleeping, or while I'm nursing. Maybe I have to stay up after everyone to get some time to myself... But my work is never finished. It's a 24/7 kind of thing. 

In accepting this as my role, I have found a lot of peace with it. So maybe I'm up in the middle of the night because my son needs me then. Maybe I'm up at 5am ironing a shirt for Hubby. Maybe I don't get to shower until noon. But it all works out. God gives us rest. And He gives us enough hours and enough patience to make it until then. 

It would be easy to say that I'm up at almost midnight writing because my day got hectic, but maybe God just wanted to make an example of me :) 

Her lamp doesn't go out at night, she gets her stuff taken care of with a good attitude and she knows what's going on. And if she can do it, so can I. 

Burning Brighter-

Lindsay