Pr. 31:27: “She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
As a woman whose job is to care for her home, her children, and her husband, this verse runs through my mind quite often. Although we all need breaks where we rest, we are urged not to be continually idle. There is a big difference between a 1 hour break and a 1 month veg-out where little to no work is done at all.
No worries men, hang with me. I have a different take on this verse today. I want to talk about not watching over the ways of the household of God.
After Stephen was stoned, Christ’s followers were greatly persecuted. Stephen had just been stoned for preaching the gospel. Saul was making ‘havoc’ of the church, dragging off men and women to prison. Now, the rest were being scattered throughout the regions of Jerusalem and Samaria. I would imagine this would not only have been a sad time, with the death of a friend, but also pretty scary and uncertain.
It would be natural for those scattered to go into hiding. Grief has many stages and effects, and it wouldn’t have been out of the question for some to simply tend to their own well-being at the time. However, we don’t see that taking place. Acts 8:4 says that those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. It tells specifically of Philip going to Samaria and preaching Christ to them. There were miracles, deliverance from unclean spirits, healings, and baptisms. Vs. 8 says, “And there was great joy in that city.”
Wow! What I notice is that instead of giving in to their feelings and emotions, those who were scattered were determined to take care of the household of God and not use this time to eat the bread of idleness. When there is work to be done, someone has to do it. It seems these followers took their work seriously.
We all need breaks from time to time. We were created to rest and the Lord even modeled that for us. It is good to spend Sabbath time where we rest, renew our strength, spend some deliberate quiet time with God in prayer and in the Word, and re-create ourselves in His strength. However, we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into idleness. We must care for our Father’s house and our Father’s children. There is work to be done.
We can take notes from those early followers and remember that there is great joy to be spread. Our family is counting on us!
Inspired,
jamie
considering the word 