Feeding

There is a page in my red Bible that, when my Bible is closed, pokes out a little from the rest of the pages. I can actually pull it out because it is no longer attached. It is Proverbs 31. I'm no expert on this passage, but I've studied it so much and seen so many little treasures in there, you wouldn't believe. At least they are treasures to me. In this particular section, a mom is telling her son what kind of wife he needs to look for. In this, we can see what kind of wife/mom we need to try to be and what kind of wife/mom to pray our daughters will be and our sons will marry.

This morning I was kind of thinking back on the last week and felt a whole range of emotion, from anger to complete compassion, when the various mothers I either saw or heard about came to mind. Then when I went to the Word, I pulled out my "page" and, once again, read over these words I love so much. In verse 15 it says that she rises while it is yet night and gives food to her household and a portion to her maidens. In just taking this for what is says, you know that this mom takes care of the physical needs of her family and if she has any servants, she feeds them as well. If you look up the word for meat, one of the meanings is "strong meat" which is referring to something spiritual instead of physical. So she not only takes care of physical needs, but she is the place they get what they need to grow spiritually. They learn how to hear the Lord and be obedient to His will in their lives. If you back up a verse and see that she is like a merchant ship and seeks her food from afar. The word for food there is "lechem" or "bread" or "shewbread". So what she is doing is feeding bread and meat. Hang with me here as I go one step further. The word "shewbread" means "bread of Presence" or "bread of Face" and was used in the temple to basically represent the face of Jesus. Did you notice the capitalization? She's giving her kids Jesus. Between the meat and the bread, their little tummies are full, but so are their hearts.

One lady was telling me last week about her husband's grandmother who is near death. As she was telling me different things about her, she started weeping and said that this dear woman was the first woman to ever pull her to her chest and stroke her hair. When she was in her mid-forties. She said she had always felt like there was an empty part of her that needed to be filled by a mother stoking her hair. Last week I heard about a mother who didn't hug or touch her daughter. Another mother who would turn a deaf ear to what was going in her young daughter's room with some man she brought home from the bar. Step-mothers and foster mothers who have not treated their children as the gifts they are. The reason I know these stories are true is because I'm seeing the effects it is having on their grown children now.

In verse 28 it says that her children rise up and call her blessed. If a mom is going to be called blesssed later on, she's going to have to feed her children right now. Pray for them whether they live with you or not. If they do live with you, teach them things that are God. Be the face of Jesus to them. Stroke their hair.