She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.Proverbs 31:26-31
The final verses show the woman in relation to her household and children. It is said that you do not know whether you have been a success in bringing up your children until you see how they, in turn, bring up theirs: This is worth pondering. Here are children who rise up to call their mother blessed. There is something very lovely in the admiration a family have for their parents. In 30, we have the heart of all: she is a woman that feareth the Lord. But we should notice particularly how this fear of the Lord is expressed: in practical, ethical ways. There is no empty profession here; the reality of her religion is seen in her behaviour, in her industry. Bridges says, 'We observe that religion does not slacken attention to temporal duties. It rather renders a woman scrupulously exact in all her household obligations, in everything within her province; careful not by her negligence to bring reproach upon her holy profession. Why should she be careless or slovenly, putting her important duties out of time, out of place? Of her it is specially expected, as the summing up of all her practical exercises, that 'she should have diligently followed every good work''. Here, then, is the mirror of God's Word - for women, and for men. King Lemuel, this is the kind of woman for you; but you will need to remember that if you want a wife like this, you will have to be worthy of her!