Rare Like a Ruby!

Proverbs 31:10 "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies."

Rubies, during biblical times, I imagine are like what diamonds are for women today. Rare to recieve, extraordinary to look at, a treasure to hold. Is there such a woman out there who is worth more than that?? Who is extraordinary, a treasure, and rare? Can I become that woman?? I mean, I won't lie, I like to think I'm pretty extraordinary and rare....but the point is for my future spouse to see those characteristics in me. Afterall, this verse is written for a man to find his future wife with these qualities. In order to truly be worth more than rubies....I first need to possess a NOBLE character.

no·ble

  (nō′bəl)
Having or showing qualities of high moral character, such as courage, generosity, or honor.

Out of the book that I'm reading for this challenge, The Proverbs 31 Woman: One Virtue at a Time, it tells me what a woman of noble character does NOT look like (and let me tell you, after reading through this list, I was kind of put in my place):

1. She does not rival towards her husband
2. She does not mope around and complain about housework
3. She does not overspend and put herself into debt
4. She is not bored, discontent, greedy, or selfish
5. She does not gossip and slander others
6. She does not spend her days doing leisurely shopping, texting, emailing, web browsing, watching late night movies, and sleeping in
7. She does not criticize, mock, or disrespect her husband
8. She is not easily embarassed by her children/husband
9. She does not let her outer beauty take precedence over her inner beauty
10. She does not take God's word lightly

So after reading through this list I had to set the book down and really think about some of these characteristics that do NOT make up a noble woman. Now, I can honestly say I do good with 3/4 of these characteristics. But if I'm being honest, and I think I owe that to my readers/followers, I definitely need to work on at least 3 of these to be able to truly say I am a noble woman.

Not that it's out of the ordinary for a woman to gossip, but I definitely need to get out of that habit. The point in doing this challenge is to be extraordinary. I don't want to be ordinary just like every other woman. When I really think about it, nothing good comes out of gossiping, maybe I feel a sense of relief from getting it off of my shoulders but when you look at the big picture, does it accomplish anything?!........No

#6 is a doozy for me.....boy do I do this stuff a lot! I call them Personal Time Wasters (PTW's). My random checks on facebook on and off throughout the day. Texting friends/family "just because" during down time in my day. Sending pointless snapchats to girlfriends. Browsing on Etsy or Amazon to see what I can find. I'm a night owl, and my guilty pleasure is watching a couple episodes/re-runs of Modern Family every night before bed which keeps me up later than I should. Do these things make me a bad person? No. Do they take my focus away from my job? Yes. It's hard to work purposefully when I am putting my focus towards those Personal Time Wasters every so often. This is a habit I have often told myself to do less of, and now I can see I will have to put more effort into changing those habits. I may even come to realize that I'll gain a lot of time back to get more work done, since I often complain I never have enough time to do certain things. 

Lastly, I do often put more of an effort into my outer beauty than my inner beauty. I won't leave the house unless my make-up is on, I want to look stylish if I'm going out into public, and I need to be put together. Not that any of that is going to change, but from here on out I am going to make sure that others see the inner beauty and I want to make that more obvious than my outer beauty. I pray every day on my way to work and in part of my prayers I always say, "Let others see the light shine through me and know that the light comes from You, Lord." 

I think to truly put this first virtue into action, I need to pray to God to humble me (first and foremost) and allow me to see my flaws and be willing to change them for the better. That may start with me changing my attitude a little, my thought patterns, my work ethic, my words, and what I spend my time on. In my eyes, it's TOTALLY do-able! If it means making me rare, extraordinary, and a treasure to my future spouse, I will accept that challenge. What woman wouldn't want to be treasured by her husband?