Being the Woman Your Man Needs – Silent Strength

“Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come,” Proverbs 31:25.

Some of you know, I don’t have a whooooole lot of clothing. My closet is very teeny tiny with only one rod and one shelf. But for me, it works. It holds just enough because the bottom line is this … it’s just clothing. I probably should give a little more attention to what I put together as an outfit, but honestly I do the best can, get out the door, and move into the day not giving it another thought because … it’s just clothing.

But in being the woman our man needs, there’s a certain clothing we find in today’s verse that really does demand our attention – it’s our “character clothing” of strength and honor.  This is an inner strength that displays divine wisdom and the fear of the Lord. It’s a strength that is not blown and swayed by the winds of undesirable circumstances. Instead, this silent strength gives her confidence to face the future honorably, even though she may not know what challenges are right around the corner. She doesn’t need to know because her hope is in the Lord.

“Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,” Psalm 146:5.

This strength in her is not harsh or demeaning toward others. She knows when to stand her ground in righteousness and when to remain firm and immovable in principle, but her graces overwhelm it all and are sweet to the taste. It’s the way she lives her life in the good, the bad and the ugly days that reveal her silent strength in God.

When her man sees this in her, “he praises her” and a need in himself is met – the need to admire his woman. That’s right, your man has a need to look at you admirably. To see a woman that helps him to raise the bar in his own life. To see a woman he can look up to and that others can as well. He draws strength from her strength. He sees that the worries of this world and her own world do not shake her to the point of defeat or despair.

You may be reading this and are thinking, “Lisa, that is a lot of pressure to put on a woman. To live dressed in that kind of clothing is something that I just can’t do.”  Well, that’s what makes this clothing so wonderful! It’s all GOD’S WARDROBE that HE bestows on us. You don’t have to muster up the strength; He provides it. This strength and honor is an inner clothing that He cloths us in as we surrender our life to His Lordship. As we seek His face in times of testing and troubles. It’s a divine clothing of our heart; nothing we can put on with our hands.

Practical Tip: We will stumble and we will fall. We will not be perfect by any means, but because of this granted inner strength and honor —- we get back up. We dust off our knees, lifts our eyes to our Helper, and we keep goin’!  THAT is why the rest of the verse says, “she can laugh at the time to come.“  And guess what? Her man will laugh right along with her!