All the Days of her Life

"[The virtuous wife] does [her husband] good and not evil All the days of her life."

~Proverbs 31:12

Josh and Jenna have been writing on dating and courtship these last few days and it has blessed me in so many ways to be part of the conversations and composition of their thoughts. This has been great encouragement to me, watching them pull together God-designed and God-honoring reasons for protecting and preserving their purity in relationships with a view toward presenting that gift to a future spouse.

So many parents are cultivating academic or athletic achievements, which of themselves are not bad, but my heart longs for my children to surpass those successes with something of far greater value. Priority of course, is loving and serving Jesus with their whole heart. After that, it's the sold-out commitment to emotional and physical purity, not just prior to marriage...but afterward too. I just noticed for the first time that the virtuous woman does her husband good all the days of her life . Am I overspiritualizing it to suggest that includes her life leading up to her marriage?

I endeavor to share openly and honestly with my children, believing that transparency is always more healthy than family secrecy. What a challenge in this area, however, as I have more pain and junk and baggage than I care to reveal. But what I mentioned here about the redemptive hand of God, applies to my life story as well. And what a great opportunity for my children to see the living story of forgiveness walked out daily in the life of their parents. If they can lay hold of the God-ordained beauty of one man-one woman before and after marriage, their whole life long, then our home educating really was home discipleship, and it really was a success. Sola Deo Gloria