A.W.E. -- Devotional for March 14, from "Good Seeds"

“An excellent wife who can find, for her worth is far above jewels” (Proverbs 31:10).

A Woman of Excellence…that spells AWE, which is what we are filled with when we see what God can do in the life of a woman totally sold out to Him. Women of former times and foreign cultures often felt useless and unfulfilled if they didn’t marry and have children. And this pressure on women, though more subtle, continues today. Certainly marriage and family are the primary means for propagating civilization, to fulfill God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” But parenting is not the only way of passing on righteousness and truth to succeeding generations. Paul himself recommended celibacy, freeing a man or a woman from the responsibility of spouse and children in order to give undivided attention to God and the work He has gifted and appointed them to do (see I Corinthians 7:32-35). But the work of a man is always going to be different than that of a woman – and that’s a good thing! The female of any species is a specialist in nesting and nurturing and homemaking. Sometimes it’s necessary for a father to adopt the role of “Mr, Mom” (and some of them do a passable job of it), but it’s more natural for a man to do the heavy, outside work. He’s the “General Contractor” of the home, while his wife is the “Interior Decorator.” He’s the Bread-winner, but she’s the Bread-giver. He’s the CEO of the home hospital, but she’s the doctor and nurse! But where there’s no husband, and no children, a woman can be just as much a woman of excellence, and in many cases even more so, as she focuses her energies wherever they are needed, inside or outside of her own home. The precedent was set in Bible times in the person of Priscilla. She worked right alongside her husband in nurturing the mind and heart of an unlearned but very promising evangelist, Apollos. And she didn’t just serve coffee and brownies! We read in Acts 18:25-26 (TM), “Apollos preached with power in the meeting place, and was accurate in everything he taught about Jesus – up to a point, but he only went as far as the baptism of John. So, when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and told him the rest of the story.” Looks very much like Aquila had found himself “an excellent wife,” competent in things of the Lord, not just of the household. How many single women have served on the mission field, teaching Bible truth, establishing churches, building up believers (Gladys Aylward, a prime example) – doing in the lives of needy abroad what their counterparts do as wives and mothers in the lives of the needy at home. Neither is more AWEsome than the other!