Welcome to Proverbs 31 Wannabe, where Alexis Heaslip, a stay at home mother of two and follower of Jesus shares her personal walk with Christ. Her goal is to help women explore the Bible and walk with Jesus by being a Proverbs 31 Wannabe woman. In this first episode, Alexis will explore what a Proverbs 31 Wannabe is and why you should read Proverbs 31 today. 

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Episode Transcript

1.   PODCAST INTRO (1-2 MINUTES)

Start with podcast music to set the stage (appx. 15 seconds before speaking.)

A.    Voice Introduction

                i.         Hi there and welcome to Proverbs31 Wannabe where we discuss biblical womanhood in our constantly busy and sometimes crazy daily life. I’m Alexis Heaslip and as a wife and mother of two, I am always striving and praying to be a Proverbs 31 woman of faith. Today  we will be taking a look at why you should strive to be a proverbs 31 wannabe. Let’s dive on in y’all. 

              ii.         Theme music (10 second segue) 

2.   TOPIC 1: WHAT IS PROVERBS 31 (12 MINUTES)

A.    A Guide for Prayer

                i.         When I first read proverbs 31, I was a young girl in high school and remember thinking, ‘wow this woman sounds like she’s wonder girl…I know that I could never do all these things.” And after briefly reading that passage, I didn’t look at it again for a couple of years. I didn’t pray about it, I didn’t think about my future, and honestly I was one of those girls who thought that maybe I wouldn’t ever have kids- they are gross, smelly, and drive people nuts. But then God threw a curve ball in my life, like He loves doing to people, and I gave birth to my son a month after I turned 21. To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement. I had postpartum depression, my new husband and I were still in school, and we weren’t just broke, we were broke broke. Through months of therapy and crying out to God, I knew I couldn’t walk life without God’s guidance anymore. Although I grew up in a Christian home, my prayer life was terrible. Sure I went to church and bible study but I didn’t have that personal connection to God like I did with one of my friends. So I knew that I needed to make changes in my life, and one of the first changes was using the Bible to help me learn to pray. I was told by google that Proverbs and psalms were a good place to start because there’s a lot of practical wisdom in those books of the Bible so I decided to flip to psalms, but instead landed at proverbs 31. When I saw that the section was called “a wife of noble character” I thought to myself, ok God I see what you are trying to say and I read this passage of scripture for the first time as a wife and mother. Gone were the days when I thought that this was something that was unattainable, gone were the thoughts of never having children, this time around I had my eyes completely opened. God put it on my heart that these verses are to be my prayer to inspire me, guide me, and walk me through life and all the difficulties I was facing. I wrote theses verses down. I made paintings with different verses from this passage on them to decorate my bathroom with. I even tried to memorize certain verses which is something I had never done before in my life. These verses in the Bible became my prayer: God I wannabe a proverbs 31 woman so bad. I wannabe that girl. Help me draw closer to you so that I can be a wife of noble character.” These 21 verses are what propels me to be a better mom, wife, and leader in my community, and I know that I am still a long way from these goals of mine. 

B.    Segue: So what does it mean to be a proverbs 31 woman? How can I be a wife of noble character? Let’s dive into the first 11 verses and discover God’s design for us women. 

3.   TOPIC 2: PROVERBS 31:10-21(12 MINUTES)

A.    Proverbs 31: 10-21

                i.         Proverbs 31:10-12 state that: “Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” A couple of words immediately stand out to me as I read these first few verses. The first words are virtuous and capable. We are told a virtuous and capable wife is more precious than rubies. What a powerful statement and also an eye opening one. Rubies are considered to be one of the rarest gems that we can find in the world, even more rare than diamonds. They are beautiful and expensive, and will last a long time when taken care of properly. If rubies, an object that isn’t alive and breathing, are considered to be that valuable, than that means a wife who is virtuous and capable is worth more than a stone that is worth millions. That also means that a woman of virtue is rare. When that hit me that made me think to myself, why is that? Yikes. According to the pew research center, 75% of women in the United States identify as a Christian woman, yet only 40% claim to be involved in church once a week, and only 27% of those women participate in prayer, scripture study, or religious education groups. Those statistics hurt my heart. And I have been there too. Up until four years ago, I would have been in the majority of women who only go to church once a week and don’t participate in much else. By the grace of God I have grown in leaps and bounds in my faith. But this is a rarity in our world. God wants to take us all by the hand and say here is a woman of virtue and capability but it is up to us to demonstrate that in our daily walk with Christ. That is a lot to ask for and that’s just the first verse.

              ii.          A woman of virtue also needs to be trustworthy, enriching the life of her husband, and bring him good. Now I know what some of you might be thinking- Alexis this is the 21st century, doesn’t that sound like the patriarchy? Where is the woman power and strength that we declare is a necessity in our 21st century lifestyle? Doesn’t the Bible say that God created male and female in His image and likeness? But as we are going to see in the next couple of verses, it is so much more that that: God wants us to be strong women. He wants us to work hard and provide in different ways for our family, and he wants us to have great and loving relationships with our partner in life. Let’s take a look at verses 13-15.

             iii.         Verses 13-15 say ““She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. She is like a merchant’s ship, bringing her food from afar. She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.” A proverbs31 girl is a hard working woman. This was hard for me to digest, not going to lie and I had to rediscover what being a hard worker meant to me and to God. Although I am not working in an office or out of the home in another way, what I do with my time at home with my household and children is valuable. The attack on stay at home moms in today’s world is wild. From my own personal experiences, I myself have been looked down upon because I am a stay at home mom. I’ve been asked “don’t you want to help provide income for your family?” “What do you do all day?” “It must be easy since you aren’t working, why are you so tired?” But the truth is that a woman’s job, whether being a stay at home mom or doing work outside the home is challenging and requires work. It’s taken  lot of trial and error, but I have a schedule for myself and have plenty of things to do. From cooking, cleaning, errands, grocery shopping, laundry, working out, and school for myself I have a pretty busy week so that my household is not falling apart. Am I always the best at all these things, definitely not. I’m sure my husband would be the first to tell you that cleaning is not my favorite thing to do and that I fall off my schedule often. But I know that I can be inspired by the Word of God to plan my day’s work. These next couple of verses are challenging for me because as a mom of two little ones, I don’t feel energetic or strong enough to  get all the things done. But with God and his provisions, it is through Him where I find strength. 

             iv.         Let’s take a look at verses 16-18: “She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard worker. She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night.” Energetic and strong. Those are two words that I think are great but also think are easier said than done. I don’t know about you, but as a mom I feel the need to do it all. And at first, that’s what it feels like these verses are saying. But when I take a pause and meditate on the Word, I see something else. I see a woman who balances her time well. She knows when to think things over. She inspects things before making decisions. She invests her money in things that will benefit her and her family. She doesn’t just make decisions on a whim. In this society where time goes a thousand miles a minute, these verses are a great reminder to not be quick to action. We are told in the Bible to be still. Be still and know that He is God. He is the one in control, not us. And this proverbs31 woman shows us the power of being still and waiting to make decisions.

              v.         The last three verses we are going to look at are verses 19-21 which say ““Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes.” I got real nervous when I read she’s busy spinning thread. Trust me you don’t want to see me try to sew anything, it is quite a disaster. Although you wouldn’t want me sewing, I do go through my children’s clothes monthly and make sure they have what they needs. Making an inventory of what we have verses what we don’t is a great skill so that we can be prepared for changing seasons. Verse twenty really hit home though. She helps the poor and needy. Boy do I fail at that all the time. Sure I give donations to church weekly and give food for the food pantry, but when was the last time it was more hands on? My family and I don’t live in the best part of town. How many times have I driven by somebody who looks like they need help? It’s so easy in our culture to look down into our phones so we don’t have to see the people in our communities that are hurting the most. This proverbs31 woman chooses to look up and get dirty to help others by extending a hand. She shows us what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus in action. 

4.   OUTRO (2-3 MINUTES)

A.    Recap: What a fantastic moment to pause on our deep dive into what it means to be a proverbs 31 wannabe. I hope you make plans to come back next time to continue looking at this powerful piece of scripture with me. I know it’s not easy- us wives and moms make mistakes all the time because we are only fallen people. But even though we make mistakes, we can still strive to be a woman of virtue and a woman who is capable of greatness.  

                i.         Music segue 

B.    Call to action:  Thanks to listening to Proverbs31 Wannabe. We hope you enjoyed the program. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts—and be sure to come back next week as we continue our discussion about why you should be a proverbs31 wannabe. Until then, this is Alexis Heaslip, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless. 

C.    Closing theme