“Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing...”
Proverbs 31:30 NKJV

In today’s society, outward charm and beauty is exalted above being a good wife, mother, friend, coworker, daughter etc...

Everything is about the outward.

Our Instagram has filters to make us look more attractive, the bloggers we obsess over and follow are wearing high end clothing that we most likely can’t afford! The makeup and body enhancements are idolized and cause insecurities we didn’t even know we had. Are all these things bad? Well, not necessarily. Are they causing us to sin? Then yes, they are bad. I know for me, I love fashion and interior design; but when my focus is on those things instead of my inward beauty and what really matters (fearing the Lord!) I need to re-check my attention.
Beauty fades, macros and keto diets won’t be the trick to weight loss in a few years, trends and styles get old, the farmhouse someday won’t be the cool thing... and then what?
Perhaps our kids didn’t get the attention they needed, they didn’t get read to and looked in the eyes enough because our eyes were watching someone else’s life on our phone. Our husbands didn’t get the love and respect they deserve because we needed to workout or go shopping. My daughter wasn’t taught about inward beauty and saw me consumed with my appearance and comparing myself to others.

That’s not the testimony I want.

Especially in today’s society, our daughters are blasted with such filth and pressure to be flawless... I need to take my job as a Godly mother more serious, she needs to see me living a life consumed by things of the Lord. Our actions are going to speak so much louder than our words.

So how do we have this inward beauty and charm?

At the start of our proverbs31 series of devotionals you may have been intimidated by this “unattainable woman” the scriptures talk about. I know for me, most days I fail in most areas. I may have lost my cool on my kids, burned dinner (or maybe served cereal for dinner!) or maybe just not had the diligence and grace this lady has perfected.
The beauty of it is none of us do, or ever will have “it all together”. The proverbs 31 woman isn’t a real life woman, rather a description of the women we should strive to be. I was talking with my husband about this, and how I am unsure on how to wrap up this beautiful p31 scripture for all of you, and he gave me sound wisdom. He said, the key to the whole chapter is in the last verses, if you start on the end of verse 30 the rest of these attributes will come a lot easier. Let’s read it:

“...But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”
Proverbs 31:30 NKJV

If we wake up each day desiring to honor the Lord, and fear Him, we will be just like this woman. Our Father is pleased with our hearts seeking to honor him in all we do. In the end of our life our children will call us blessed, our husbands will praise us- not because we achieved perfection, but rather we lived virtuously as women of God.