Prepping

             She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.  She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. (Proverbs 31:20-23)

After skipping several more verses about the industriousness of the noble person, we come to these verses and find several points of interest. The noble person cares about the poor and needy. Just who the poor and needy are and how the noble person helps may differ from one noble person to the next, but they care and they extend their hands. This caring extends to her home and family and to the community.

The noble person is a prepared person. He/she is prepared for winter, prepared to help the poor, prepared to train employees (yesterday’s post), and prepared to act as a respectable partner to the spouse. I wouldn’t suggest that the noble person is a prepper or a homesteader, but if you’ve read my blog you’ll know that being prepared for emergencies is a recurrent sense of anxiety in my life. The noble person is prepared, perhaps not because they have this specific supply or that certain tool, but because they have wisdom. They have joy in knowing where and to whom to look in crisis.

Thirdly, the noble person is socially adept, knowing how to avoid embarrassing themselves and their spouses. I suspect the previous items have something to do with this, and that one of the things they have in common is an outward perspective. I don’t mean that she’s an introvert, but that attention is paid to something other than the noble person’s self. And that is based on the confidence developed by faith, experience, and preparedness.