She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Proverbs 31:12

Discovering Truth:

The wise woman builds her house. With the proper foundation laid, where will this wise woman begin? Since the Lord created the woman to be a help and companion to her husband, the appropriate place for her to begin will be in her relationship to him. Remembering that wisdom is from God Himself, found in His Word, what truths can we find that will help us build?

A very simple, but profound, truth can be found in Proverbs 31. In describing an excellent wife (a strong, virtuous wife), the Scripture says: She does him (her husband) good. Think on that truth for a few moments. She does him good – and not evil!

Can you recall that God said it was not good that the man should be alone? His remedy for that problem was to make a help/companion for him. God intended for her to be a good thing for him.

Now, listen to Proverbs 18:22:

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.

There we see the exact truth. The wife is to be a good thing for the husband. Therefore, she does him good. She does him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. Doing her husband good is her lifestyle. She begins her marriage doing him good. She restrains from doing him evil, and this is the pattern of her life – for all her life.

I love the result this goodness produces in her husband.  The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. He trusts her. He can depend on her. He knows that she is on his team, that she is faithfully by his side. He knows, with certainty, that she will do him good. How can he be so sure? It is because she has faithfully done good to him all the days of her life! Therefore, he doesn’t need anything else! What a wife!

Now, lest you think, that your husband doesn’t deserve you to be good to him, may I remind you that we did not deserve the goodness that the Lord poured out on us. Scripture says: He is kind to the unthankful and evil and instructs us to be merciful just as our Father is merciful (Luke 6:35-36). Romans 5:8 proclaims: But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You can also recall that goodness is fruit that is produced by the Spirit in the life of the believer (Galatians 5:22).

So here is our first building block:

The wise woman will faithfully and consistently do good

(and not evil) to her husband!

 

Personal Reflection:

I sat in the home of an elderly widow, helping her sort items and listening to her reminisce about her life. She pulled out a beautiful vintage marriage certificate with the specifics of her and her husband’s marriage carefully written in calligraphy. She read portions of the certificate aloud and concluded with the Scripture embossed at the bottom: She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

We talked about that verse for a few moments and then discussed how a single verse carries profound truth and can transform a life if it is truly lived out before the Lord. Then, the elderly widow made a very wise statement: It is very good if a woman enters a marriage knowing this truth, but if she still knows it at the end of her marriage, it is a far greater thing!

I pondered on that statement for days. I thought about what hardships, disagreements, arguments, selfishness, and sin do in a marriage. I thought about how these things clutter a heart with resentment and bitterness, and how easy it is, through unforgiveness, to lose truth that you might have once known. She was right – If a wife goes through her lifetime and is still doing her husband good at the end, that is truly a great thing and brings much glory to the Lord!  This truth – doing a husband good (and not evil) – is important no matter how long you have been married. And it is never too late to build.

 

So, Until Next Time:

Allow the Lord to examine your heart.

If there are thoughts in there toward your husband that are not good thoughts, sincerely ask the Lord to change them.

Scripture teaches that everything that we say and do comes from our heart.

Wrong thoughts must be dealt with, so that right words and actions can flow from the heart.

Ask the Lord to show you ways that you can do good to your own husband.

Ask the Lord to restrain you when you would do evil.

Ask Him to make you more like Jesus – starting with the way you treat your husband!

Every wise woman builds her house. Let’s build good things!

 

I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live,

but Christ lives in me;

and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20