Our last guest poster is Mandi who is one of the most inwardly (and outwardly!) beautiful women I know. She is my right hand when it comes to trying to come up with fundraising ideas for Kaia and I appreciate her help so much!

When I think of a Proverbs 31??well, to be honest, I try not to think of Proverbs 31. For me, those verses are daunting, a reminder of the kind of wife I should be but often fail to be. A Proverbs 31 woman seems perfect, unattainable. That is, until I get to verse 30: ??Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.??

Most of Proverbs 31 focuses on what a virtuous wife does: she provides for the material needs of her family, she is thrifty, cares for the poor, and speaks with wisdom. It??s easy to go through this ??list??, verse by verse and think of situations in which I have failed to fulfill these tasks. But verse 30 is one of the few verses that describe qualities which are not necessary for a virtuous woman to possess, in this case charm and beauty. While a good woman may be charming or beautiful , she need not be. What a relief!

You see, when I think of a perfect wife, I envision someone whose outward perfection matches that of her inner life. She appears lovely, poised, and charming. Some days that could describe me, most days it does not. This verse is a reminder that outward appearance is not only unimportant, it also can be deceiving. That??s not to say that we shouldn??t try to look our best or that all women who put time into looking beautiful are vain or acting charming are deceitful, simply that these things are not the basis of virtue.

When Jen presented this project, I read through Proverbs 31 several times discerning which verse to select. Each time, this verse spoke to my heart. Since my daughter was born in December 2011, I have struggled to feel physically beautiful. I often feel beautiful in other ways; I believe the love of a wife for a husband and a mother for her child is beautiful in itself and I strive to perfect my beauty in this way. But physically, I??ve felt anything but lovely. On days when I don??t work, I usually don??t leave the house because I??m embarrassed to be in public. I??ve always struggled with blemished skin but since Lucia was born, it??s been absolutely awful. While I had some body image and self-esteem issues as a teenager, since meeting my husband, I??ve felt very comfortable in my skin. I don??t tend to put much stock into physical appearance, but over a year of looking in the mirror and seeing ugly red and blemished skin has caused my self-worth to slowly diminish to almost nothing.

??A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.??

Proverbs 31 is a beautiful reminder that I need to return to looking at myself through God??s eyes and not the eyes of the world. Open any woman??s magazine and there will be article upon article about how to appear more charming, how to look more beautiful. Yet, even if you ??perfect?? your beauty and charm, these things do not last. If you seek to attain eternal life, you must cultivate in yourself everlasting virtues.

A God-fearing woman may be invisible in the eyes of society, but to those that she encounters, she is a blessing. Beauty and charm rarely have the ability to transform lives, but a woman who loves the Lord leaves a lasting mark of love, grace, and dignity with her loved ones. I may not be described as beautiful or charming, but I am praise-worthy in the eyes of the Lord. If God sees value in me, who am I to say I am without value?

Mandi is a twenty-something wife to David and mother to Lucia. When she??s not changing diapers, teaching Spanish, or playing word games, she??s most likely blogging at Messy Wife, Blessed Life.

Our guest poster today is Amanda who has my respect not only because she’s a woman of immense valor, but because she’s also a youth minister. ESHET CHAYIL!!!!

??Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all.?? ?? Proverbs 31:29 (NAB)

Upon reading Proverbs 31:29 I have a knee-jerk reaction to say, ??Surely I have not excelled them all. God could not be talking about me.?? Then comes the thought that not only have I not excelled other women, but that I can??t even be counted among the ??many?? women of proven worth. All at once I??ve disregarded this entire verse because I??m certain it doesn??t apply to me. Proverbs 31 must be talking about some mythical woman who doesn??t exist in my reality.

But what if, for just a second, we consider the possibility that Proverbs 31:29 could actually be referring to each and every one of us? Then what? Our worth isn??t proven because we are perfect or sinless. In fact, our worth isn??t proven by any thing we do. We can rise while it is still night and distribute food to the household (v.15), we can reach out to the poor (v.20), we can do all the things that the previous verses describe and still not have our worth proven. Our worth isn??t proved by what we do, it is proved by who we are. Our worth comes from God and shines forth in our character, by being virtuous and faithful women. When the going gets tough, we fall to our knees in prayer. We recognize that it is God who proves our worth time and time again. There are many women of proven worth because they realize their worth is not of their own doing, but God??s. When we stop trying to prove our own worth and let Him find us worthy then we join the host of women this verse refers to.

This still begs the question, ??If there are so many women of proven worth, how can I excel them all??? We excel the other women by being who God created us to be: ourselves. St. Paul spends much of 1 Corinthians 12 talking about how we are each given a different gift. No one else on earth gets to be me, nor do I get to be anyone else on earth. God has called me to be me, here, in this time and in this place for a specific person. I exceed other women of proven worth by being me, by striving to fall more deeply in love with Him. God gave me special gifts and He gave you a special gift, a unique call to build up His Kingdom and glorify His name. Are you answering that call or are you bogged down by the art of comparison? Do you have yourself convinced that other women are doing ??it?? (whatever ??it?? is) better than you? Rid yourself of those thoughts because God is calling you some place unique and meant just for you. Follow Him there.

In reality, Proverbs 31:29 is meant for each of us. God finds us all worthy and proves our worth time and time again. He renews our worth when we turn our hearts towards Him and then He sends us out to build up His Kingdom in a unique way. By following His path for our lives we exceed all other women because only we can live out God??s call for us as individuals. You are a woman of proven worth, beloved by God, and invited to serve Him like only you can.

A woman after the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, Amanda is also a Colorado native and can hardly imagine living anywhere else. She graduated from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina in 2009 with a Bachelor’s in Theology, as well as minors in Psychology and Philosophy. Amanda works as a youth minister, and has a heart for women’s ministry. Her personal blog can be found at worthy of Agape.