If you grew up in a nominally cultural Christianity as I did, it was not uncommon, then or now, to hear homilies taken from verses in Proverbs 31, especially around Mother’s Day. In this section of Proverbs the king pens an encomium. He praises the blessings of a virtuous wife.

But it’s not Mother’s Day in our culture, one might say. True. But aren’t you glad that the virtuous wife in your life (if you have one) doesn’t just embody that one day a year, but lives it over and over again, often with very little thanks? And are you perhaps like I am–way too seldom thankful, in word and deed, for her and to her?

Scripture reads this way about the excellent wife:

An excellent wife who can find?

She is far more precious than jewels.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good, and not harm,

all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:10-12)

And these words, too:

She looks well to the ways of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness. (Proverbs 31:27)

I don’t say it or show it enough, but you are a blessing, CJ, God’s blessing in my life.