In 1814, Martha Forman was married to a wealthy Maryland plantation owner. One might imagine she spent her days sipping tea, being fitted for lovely gowns, entertaining in society, and charming dignitaries — while giving crisp orders to her servants and slaves.
Instead, Martha worked right alongside the household staff, as well as the field hands, from four in the morning to eleven at night. Among her daily activities were the following:
- Oversight and management of all her workforce
- Seeing to necessary purchases for the household
- Making 30 to 35 pounds of old tallow into candles
- Cutting out dozens of shirts, jackets, or trousers for the slaves (whom she called “my family”)
- Knitting stockings
- Washing and drying and ironing clothes and linens
- Spinning and dyeing wool
- Baking pies and puddings
- Sowing or reaping wheat
- Killing farm animals and salting the meat
- Planting or cultivating or picking fruits and vegetables
- Making jams, jellies, and preserves with her fruits and vegetables
- Cleaning the house
- Planning and preparing for huge parties
- Caring for sick family members and slaves
(Cited, generally, from Something Old, Something New, by Vera Lee).
This list might be compared with the detailed description of the “noble” or “virtuous” wife in Proverbs 31:10-31. Obviously, there is a spiritual (and a symbolic) significance in practically every particular of that description — and consequently numerous exhortations to all members of the Ecclesia, the Bride of Christ.
But underlying the well-known spiritual applications, there are first of all powerful practical lessons to be learned here:
(a) Those who keep themselves busy in useful and constructive activities get into less trouble than those who do not seem to have enough to do: “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness” (Prov. 31:27). Or, to put it another way, “The fellow pulling on the oars has no time to rock the boat.”
(b) Willing hands and an industrious mind go a lot further than “charm” and “beauty” to define a noble woman (Prov. 31:30).
(c) While we know that we are saved by faith, through the grace of God, there is nonetheless a place for “works” in the divine scheme. The description of the “virtuous” woman, as well as the whole of the Book of Proverbs, closes with these words: “Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate” (Prov. 31:31).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One