Facing Life

The woman who looks well to the ways of her household, has no time for eating the bread of idleness. You will see that if you will look at the picture the wise man gives of this woman in the preceding verses. And you may see in many a home today a counterpart of this woman.

Watch one of these women as she goes about looking after the ways of her household. There is the baby to be nursed and fed, his things to be laundered. There are the older children to dress and get off to school. She must have her husband's things in place, his breakfast on the minute, and see to it that he gets to the office on the dot. There are the dishes to wash, beds to make up, floors to sweep, furniture to dust, garments to mend, stockings to darn, groceries to buy, meals to plan and prepare, and countless other jobs to do. With it all, she bears the greater part of the responsibility for keeping the right spirit and the right atmosphere in the home. As busy as she is with her household cares, she makes herself a diffusive center of wisdom and kindness--"She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness" (v. 26). She finds time to be a good neighbor--"She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy" (v. 20). Truly she is a virtuous woman, and her price far above rubies (v. 10).

When you consider what it means to keep a home, it is marvelous how much some women can do besides. What man can stand so much as a woman can stand? It is not easy to be a woman!

It's a large order, that of running a house! But it can be filled by the woman who aims constantly to reach that high plane where tryst is ever kept with God; a plane where she can keep clearly in mind the fact that nothing so much matters as the spirit of things, that houses matter not so much if the spirit in them is sweet, that clothes matter but little if the heart be clothed with a gentle, sweet and modest spirit.

A TOAST TO HOME KEEPERS!