Proverbs 14

“A woman starts work to build a new house, after arriving in Grifto village earlier that day. She and her family have been walking days in search of food and water and have decided to settle here because people near the town are receiving food and there is a water point nearby.”

How did your house get built?  I’m grateful mine did not require that I physically labor on the material building of our house, but I am responsible for building the home that resides in that house. I think that applies to the first verse in this chapter – the subject of Pastor’s lesson during Wednesday service.

Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. (Proverbs 14:1 KJV)

I believe we’ve all seen how a woman can destroy a family – no need to list examples of such foolishness.  The important lesson is seeking to be the wise woman who continues to put in effort to keep her house in order. Remember, it’s part of my Titus 2:3-5 responsibilities, teaching keepers at home.

No, that doesn’t mean keeping women at home! There’s another chapter in Proverbs about a virtuous woman who keeps busy in a number of business ventures – she is in trade and real estate as well as seeing to her home:

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. (Proverbs 31:27 KJV)

There’s another verse that reminds me of keeping house:

Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. (Proverbs 14:4 KJV)

An empty house is easily kept clean. As a family lives within the house, they leave lots of tracks of their activities, creating work for the home maker, but those tracks become memories and strengthen the family.

Another verse in this chapter caught my attention:

A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. (Proverbs 14:5 KJV)

It’s up to each of my readers to determine whether I’m a faithful witness, and if Solomon was.  Did the king write his thoughts? I think so. Are they applicable today?  I think so.  Do I want to apply them to my life?  Yes.  That’s the reason for going past reading, to study and apply the principles. Another verse tells me that talking about it isn’t the answer:

In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. (Proverbs 14:23 KJV)

It’s the doing, the accomplishing, the work that is profitable.  Talking about what should be done, could be done, might be done, leads to want, a poverty, whether in material value or spiritual

I’ve just hit a few items. Pastor had eleven specific points, but all thirty-five verses have value, whether we’re trying to save our family from a drought and providing for them in a building with roof and walls or living in comfort. How are we doing spiritually?