Devotional Details

THE CHILDREN’S BREAD

2^nd. MAY 2022

(Proverbs 31:10-31, NIV)

“Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.”

Proverbs 31:11-12, NIV.

So, child of God, let’s continue where we stopped last week; VIRTUOUS WOMAN. The scripture tells us that her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. This is so true because she is a woman that is committed to her marriage, and home; the marriage as instituted by God, and a home are things of value, thus, she does her utmost best to protect them. She is not into an alternative lifestyle, although she could afford to live it if she wanted to, but that is not who she is as she is a woman who fears God, honors her husband, and herself, consequently, her husband and home. She does not give her husband any reason to doubt her loyalty to him. She is faithful till the very end, ether till death do them part, or till the marriage comes to a proper end. She would rather end that marriage than to be in it, and be unfaithful to her spouse, or not to give it her best.

Many years ago, as I sat in the office, helping out, as our family’s part time secretary (of course without pay :-)). A guy who I really liked with the love of Christ, walked in and eventually came into the particular office where I was, just to spend some time with me like he would usually do. In the course of our discussion, he began to tell me how he had finally found a wife to marry. I was really over the moon for him as I had always encouraged him to do so, in order to avoid falling into unnecessary temptations (1 Corinthians 7:9). He began to tell me about the lucky bride to be. He told me that she was in Nigeria, and that she reminds him of myself in terms of looks, which I understood to have been a great compliment as he was someone, who only had eyes for beautiful women. There was a lady who was with me in the office that particular day (a secretary), and both of us listened and really enjoyed the conversation with him. I was really over-joyed to see him that happy, talking about someone he had finally made up his mind to settle down with. It was further into the discussion about the lucky lady, that my spirit started getting worried. My excitement gradually began to wane into sorrow for him as he began to tell me the main reason why he loved the lady, who he intended to marry. He said, “Susan, why I love this lady so much is that there is no office, that she is not able to walk into, regardless of who the man sitting in it is. Nothing can stop her from getting whatever she wants! There is nothing that I need from any man in Nigeria that she wouldn’t get for me easily, within a few hours. If you doubt me, I will call her right now, and tell her to go to a certain office and get me a document, that should be impossible to get. She will go and come out with it, within the next few hours. This is how assertive this girl is, I just love her!” When I heard this, and because I realized that his mind was made up, I only began to feel extremely uncomfortable in my sit, so much so, that I began to wriggle in it. My smile turned into a big frown, yet, he did not understand that I was unsettled because of his plight. He continued with even more stories of her achievements, that made me even more uncomfortable for him. They had obviously been kicking it for a while and he was convinced, that she was the perfect march for him; the best thing since sliced bread, but why so? Because of his care for riches. He was in alliance with a woman, who was assertive, but not noble. He had his desires set, where his heart really was. I thought he was a fine soul, till I saw the content of his heart through that conversation; evil company, the Scripture says, corrupts good manners. I will not have to blame the girl for corrupting his manners as his heart was already corrupt. He was only pulled to the person who was compatible with him. If I should be honest, he was a very fun person to be with, but the kind of life he used to live and the things he had done, from the stories he would tell me, which used to spook me out, was not different from the kind of things he was saying about the lady he wanted to marry. Thus, his case is a classic example of birds of the same feather, flocking together. Now, this sweet guy never understood what noble, value, and virtuous really meant. He never lived it, and I guess he could have seen people who lived such lives, but in his eyes, they were obviously stupid. He equated the value of a woman with what she could get for him from any man he would point to her, as well as with how many men she would be able to cross within some hours! I mean, it was so bad in my opinion, that he would set time for her to go into offices of men, and get whatever he wanted and come out within a set time! He even got me admiring her skills for some seconds, before my sense of reasoning kicked in! I tell you Child of God, in the world that we live in, many people, not all, but many, who are very industrious, and assertive, are crooked, and by no means noble or virtuous! That again, is the truth, but only for those who are lovers of truth.

Heidi Klum is very industrious. Kim Kardashian, like-wise. Shouts out to Nikki Minaj. Jennifer Lopez is a real deal, when we are talking about being industrious and assertive. Many people are very hard working according to the ways, that the world sees hard work. All these, and many more are people, who I really admire for their assertiveness, and hard work. But can you call them virtuous and noble because of that? Absolutely not! They are hardworking and not lazy, this I do not dispute, and which is very commendable as it takes a lot, to work hard. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the LORD God, it does not earn them the title of nobility, or the virtuous one! Let us not forget that Solomon, as a man who had more wives, than he could have been able to remember, would have had to have studied many of his wives, and like the brother whose story I narrated, some of the skills of those ladies could have left lasting impressions on his mind. I would suggest, from a human perspective though, that without a shadow of a doubt in my opinion, the parts where Solomon was explaining about her ability to trade, are some of the attributes belonging to one, or some of those women, that he married, who eventually made him to end up worshipping idols as many of them were idol worshippers, and never genuinely converted to worshipping the God of Israel- they were obviously very assertive with their trading skills 🙂 –selah

Contrary to the world of the ungodly, in the world of the Godly, someone who is assertive in ungodly things should not be commended. The truth as it pertains to a virtuous woman and marriage is this; it can go anyway for her. This is so because good, and bad men alike, are on the look-out for the same kind of women- Nobel women!

There is no guarantee that a virtuous woman will land a jackpot with the husband that she marries, though she is definitely a jackpot to whoever marries her as her value has nothing to do with how much money or physical assets she has. Her worth is in her inner value, regardless of her credit score! The only kind of people, who would tie the worth of a virtuous woman to material assets, or her credit score, are those, who by reason of untrained spiritual senses, are not able to discern what is of value, and what is not. when God allows her to marry a wicked, and ungodly husband, it is mostly for a greater good; to the glory of God, and for her good (Esther). Talking about Esther, she did not have a wonderful credit score, if she had any at all, yet, her worth surpassed that of those, who had. How much could you have rated Esther’s credit score, in order for her to have been used by God to save a whole tribe, or a nation from annihilation? I would love to know her worth, after you have converted it to a credit score? I can hear crickets! Not even Elon Musk with all his money could have achieved that. Thus, Esther’s wealth was much more than could be equated with money. Why do I believe so? another reason is this, If a king tells you, that whatever you wish for, that he will give it to you, even up to half of his kingdom; that is wealth that money cannot buy, and mind you, she did not delve into witchcraft (spell, love-portion, manipulation, deception, tricks, lies, evil-prayers, etc.) to achieve that! If a king is ready to re-shuffle his whole cabinet; to introduce Godly laws that should govern his kingdom, which was initially missing, in order to make sure that you do not leave his kingdom along with your people, but rather stay with him in his, then that is what I call wealth that money and sex cannot buy. Afterall, the king was the lord over a whole harem; sex was never a problem, it was as cheap as toothpaste. The truth about it is, that he even hardly had sex with Esther, yet, he was ready to get rid of his whole harem, if need be, to make sure she stays with him; this makes me understand that Mama Sita Esther, just might have had the major extras, that the king knew about!! Consequently, if a virtuous woman is fortunate to marry a godly man, or at least a man, who appreciates her value, then she will have little or no up-hill battles, to become and to remain who she truly is. She will not have to diminish her true nature, and worth as she can express her feelings, and godliness without the anticipation of any form of ungodly opposition, and without having to be in constant battle, and rebellion to whomever is trying to make her conform to the lifestyles, that does not represent her godly values.

Furthermore, as long as she is married to a noble man, she will find it very easy to manifest her virtuous lifestyle, and gifts. Don’t forget, a noble husband will always discern her worth and appreciate her for it, while an ungodly husband or one, who is ego-centric, will never genuinely appreciate her for it, as she will constantly be a thorn in his flesh; an obstacle to his enterprise! The investment of a virtuous woman can only have great impact, if she is with a noble man, who appreciates her worth, and allows her the liberty, that she needs, to be who she really is. If she is in a marriage with a man of dis-honor, her efforts regardless of how hard she tries, would not yield the appropriate fruits it was destined to as the spouse, would keep sabotaging all her efforts.

It is a nightmare when a virtuous woman is unfortunate to end up in a marriage with a heartless man, but if we look around, that seems to be how many of the marriages are these day, if it is publicly acknowledged or not. Very many people have only learned the art of perfect camouflage; pretending as though they have a perfect marriage, although in actual sense, in many marriages, at least one spouse, for diverse reasons, cannot stand the other, and sometimes their reasons can be justified as every marriage, or relationship must have boundaries, that the two partners in joint agreement have set, to govern and protect the godly relationship, in case it is one.

A virtuous woman, who has the ability to make money, is always good in investing it well. In order words, virtuous women, are good in running things well; a home, a business, etc. whatever she does, she does it well as long as it is something that she is interested in, and something that is for a larger good. She thinks about long term, and things that will be beneficial to all and not just to her. She is not a selfish person as anything she does is never out of gain for self, but rather, that which should benefit everybody.

A virtuous woman knows how to keep herself together without having to waste all the money, that the family has. I used to know 2 different women, when growing up in my early teenage years in Nigeria, who greatly inspired and impacted my view on the way I love to dress till this very day!

The first woman was a single, and very beautiful woman. I loved the fact that she was a nice, and very soft-spoken woman. Nonetheless, I hated the fact that she changed men like one changes slips! I also did not like the fact, that she would use layers, and layers of make-up on her face, and you would never see her without such layers of make-up. If she mistakingly hugs you, then you’re done as you would have no other job for almost the whole day, than cleaning off her make up! I do believe, that the reason why I did not fancy the fact that she used too much make up, was because I did not like to use make up myself, and my mum didn’t use much either, so it was something personal, I suppose. I still do not like too much make up, but it has nothing to do with religion, not at all. I just don’t like to use much of it, if at all, then, sparingly. I may change my mind in the near future as I have daughters who are good with make up and love to make me up when I have to do videos! I have never been a make-up person, though I do use it when it is necessary as not to scare people when I come out without, but I am not a fan of it. So, back to this lady, she was as fair as the sun in complexion, though I later learned, that she was in actual sense as black as midnight, before she re-created herself into “Ms. my fair lady!”

She always had the best kinds of dresses, which was wonderful, but was irritating from my point of view as she only chased after every new, and most expensive brand of material that came out; things, which were in trend. I mean, it was too expensive, and just too superficial as it relates to her lifestyle. The sad part of it is, that she did all that because she was an ardent party-goer! Why I found it very bad was because, many times, the young girl who lived with her, would come to us asking for food to eat as they did not have anything at home. She hardly could pay her rent, could hardly feed, although she had a very good job and earned very well. All her money went into things that were on vogue at any particular season; clothes, shoes, jewelry, make up, hair, etc. that were so expensive. Such money, was what she could have invested into something better, since she was earning enough to have done so! Thus, it did not make any reasonable sense to me, and I made up my mind, back in those days, that I was not going to be like her, chasing after brands, and so forth, when it comes to buying clothes and shoes!

Because of her, I hate the idea of idolizing trademarks even till this day. When you see me wear such things, 9 out of 10 times, it is either a gift from my children, or someone else! I have no issues with people who love to buy brands, but we have to be careful not to idolize it.

The second woman, was one who eventually became the manager in Nigeria’s most popular airline back in the day. She was the epitomy of beauty and she was a woman, who worked really very hard, for real! Nonetheless, we do not have to delve into her personal life, let’s just pretend as though it never existed! But she really inspired me because I never expected someone of her status, and beauty to dress in casual ways like she did. I would make it a point of duty to run out of our house every morning just to see her going to work, and she never disappointed me, not even for once! I never saw her wear any brand, like too many women were used to, but rather, she would put on affordable materials, that anyone could afford to wear, and combine them in such a way, that made her come out looking better, and even more classy, than all those chasing after brands! She was my queen, and I do believe that she would be proud of me as I secretly learned from her as it relates to the way she dressed! She was by no means a virtuous woman, but she was indeed a kind and hard working woman, and I loved and respected her for that!

I want us to know that not every woman, who is hardworking and who knows how to make money and push things, is virtuous. On the other hand, not every virtuous woman knows how to make money and push things. I know women who are lazy but virtuous, and I also know women who are very hardworking, yet, they are devils in human skin! So, we have to be mindful of how we interpret and discern virtuous women, and noble men. I know women who pretend as though they are virtuous but they are Satan’s right-hand officers, while I have seen women who people deem as arrogant, proud, petty, yet, they are really virtuous according to the Holy Spirit! It depends on which lens you are viewing from; God’s or men?

Jesus loves you!

Written by Susan Ikeokwu