Verse 16

"She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard." Proverbs 31:16 (NIV)

Do any of you work an outside job and then have to come home and care for your family, your home, and whatever else? Many women do these days and there's always been that debate within and without the church as to whether a wife and/or mother can be in the workplace and the home at the same time. Can she properly care for her family? Can she ______________? Fill in the blank.

The Bible clearly states that a wife and mother is to give priority to her husband and children. For some women, that may mean that working outside of the home is too much and that her family will suffer. For others, it isn't a problem and she does those things that she must with much grace and ease.

I'm not one of the superwomen. I worked a full-time job at a bank when my oldest son, Josh, was a baby. It was tough. I couldn't seem to balance it all out. My family was suffering. When Josh was about 18 months old, I was pregnant for Jonathon and quit to stay home. I've worked off and on since then, but most often it's been a part-time or temporary thing.

Right now I'm busy (with five kids, who wouldn't be?) trying to put up food for the coming winter, preparing for another year of homeschooling, trying to make money here and there by cleaning a neighbor's house every other week, and selling my homemade bath products. It seems like I'm going nowhere.

For me, Proverbs 31:16 is a promise from the Lord that doing whatever I can to make life easier and better for my family puts me in the center of His will. If that means working for pay, so be it. If that means staying at home and saving money by whatever penny pinching ways I can find, so be it. The key is that understanding what is to be a priority and then doing that with all of the strength that God gives me.