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Tea Time for Ladies
thoughts from the pastor's wife
We are sorry, but due to computer problems we will have to postpone any new postings to this page. Thank you for reading, we hope to be back soon! ~ Pastor Jossund
Last week
Proverbs 31:14-15 "She is like the merchants ships; she bringeth her food from afar."
Back in the time that this was written, there was obviously no such thing as a supermarket. You couldn't wait until you ran out of something and then say ~ "oh! I'll run to the store and pick it up!" No, most things you needed you planted and grew yourself. However, sometimes your climate and region would make some things impossible to grow. At this point, you had one of two choices ~ do without, or find someone that had what you wanted and then trade them for something you had and they needed.
Point: it took a lot of work. The Bible commends the virtuous woman because she had organized herself and applied the industry necessary to find the way to bring the extra things she needed for her home and family "from afar". It seems that she did this without loss because the Bible likens her to the merchant's ship. A merchant's ship did not just bring things from distant countries, it brought it with the idea of a profit being made.
I wonder how true this would be of us - of me? In today's world we don't necessarily have to go without for our lack of planning, but there is still a price tag. We may have to pay more (because it is no longer on sale or you have to eat out because there was "nothing to eat at home"), waste time (because we only needed that one item and we could have picked it up at the store when we were there yesterday), and waste gas (some of us are in the habit of the daily Walmart shopping trip because we don't discipline ourselves to plan ahead ). None of this would be at a profit - it would be a distinct loss.
The fact is - we all have to do grocery shopping because we all have to eat. So why not streamline ourselves so that we are getting the MOST for our time, energy, money, and gas. I'll tell you why I struggle with this - it is this thing called discipline. It takes discipline to make up a menu and grocery list ahead - and it takes discipline to not spend money I don't have by sticking to the list and not allowing my eyes or appetites to wander. It takes discipline to look for coupons, sales ads etc... and it takes discipline to look at my life and resources and say, "these are not mine to waste - they are God's and He will be most honored and glorified by a disciplined, productive life." I must say, when I've applied these principles, and I hear on the radio that there might be a snowstorm coming in, I smile, because I know that I'm prepared and my family will not lack.
Thought for the week; where does God want me to grow in my habits - am I disciplined in the way I execute my God-given responsibilities, or do I waste my resources and time presuming that they are mine to squander.
