Proverbs 31 is one of the Bible's most prominent celebrations of womanhood. We get to see her be honored for her strength and influence, her faithfulness to God, her competence in finance and leadership in both the home and the public sphere. Let's all celebrate and reflect on these virtues of the women we love on this Mother's Day! "...let her works bring her praise at the city gate!"

Here is the Bible's full celebration

Epilogue: The Wife of Strength & Influence

¹⁰ A wife of strength, competence and influence[1] who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness[2].
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do powerful/influential[3] things,
but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Pr 31:10–31.
(Minor translation corrections as noted.)

[1] חַיִל (Hayil) often used in regard to military strength or social class (i.e. nobility) because of economic influence and position.  This word doesn’t appear in the context of moral character.  The word shows strength, as in horses (psalm 33:17).  It also has uses that relate to wealth. Note that this word also appears in 31.3 and the NIV itself translates as “strength.”  The NIV translation, “noble character,” is distinctly different from the meaning of the original Hebrew.

[2] עַ֝צְל֗וּת (Atslut) the translation of idleness is acceptable, but a more appropriate term may be laziness.

[3] Same as v 10. חַ֭יִל.  Noble would only be in regard to exercising the authority of her social status.

Christa Hudak, CFP®, ChFC®, CKA®, Financial Advisor and Chief Planning Officer for CoCreate Financial, shares her thoughts on a passage in Matthew 6:19 where Jesus directs people to focus on storing up treasure in Heaven. Calling upon her educational background in Biblical Literature, Christa shares some of the Greek and dives deeper into the idea that there are internal and external factors to the consumption of wealth. She challenges viewers to think through how we consume our wealth today and how Jesus may be directing us further in how to use our wealth.

Full Transcript:

 Hi, I'm Christa. I'm one of the financial advisors here at CoCreate Financial, and I also have a background in biblical scholarship, and I just love digging into the scripture, and God has so much to say about our finances and how that engages with our spirituality. And I was digging into a passage this week and it's Matthew 6:19 where Jesus tells us, do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

And as I was looking at this passage, I was flipping through my Greek and just something stuck out to me that I felt like I really wanted to share with you and that is this word for rust. And The Greek word is brosis, and what's interesting about it is that it, it really isn't rust, it's the act of eating or consuming, or we could say consumption. And I certainly understand why the translators identified it as rust because they're thinking about something that corrodes and destroys and other translations, NIV uses vermin, and there's, you know, another translation I looked at that referred to it as eating insects where it's like they were digging into that eating concept and that felt like they had to add the clarification of insects.

But I think there's actually some significance in it just being this very neutral word of consumption, not being directly tied to a particular thing that is doing the eating, destroying, and making the wealth disappear because there's lots of things that consume wealth, but one of the main ones is our own consumption.

And when we use that in that neutral term, we can view it as your own consumption. So let's think about this verse again. Do not store up for yourself treasure on earth where moth and consumption destroy. And with this, of course, our own consumption is not inherently bad. We have to view it in this neutral way. You know, God gives us resources to use for our own consumption. We have to pay our bills, put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and those aren't bad things, and I think God even blesses us to really enjoy life sometimes. But at what point are you trading your present day consumption for treasures in heaven?

And I think that's a point worth digging into because as a financial advisor, what I see, the biggest thing that eats up people's wealth is their own consumption, and so I would really encourage you to ask that question and explore your own spending habits and, and what you're doing with your resources and what you might be being called to do with those resources instead, if you paired back your consumption or viewed your consumption in a different light. Once again, consumption's not bad or evil, and there's not a magic number where certain amount is too much, but I think Jesus is definitely talking about all the risks to our wealth, not just the external risks, but also the internal risk of how we use it and consistently always want more, and we can always use it to consume more, or we can use it to invest in treasures in heaven.