A Gracious Woman

Proverbs 11:16-17 A gracious woman attains honor, and ruthless men attain riches. The merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.


What are you pursuing in order to obtain a good name? It says in Proverbs that a good name is to be desired. Of course not for our own sakes only as is often our motive, but for the name of Jesus. I know that I am not the only woman who wants to have a good reputation, but what I want to know what type of person does God honor? Too often we look at our culture and into our own minds/hearts to define what we will pursue to obtain honor. This is true of the church; this is true of me. Do we not often think, a person who is honorable, exalted, worthy of praise, is the doctrinal diva, the truth telling tyrant, the no-nonsense- matter-of-fact-quick-passioned-bully. Now..... we don't say it that way, but that seems to be the way it works out.


Proverbs says that it is the gracious woman who obtains honor. To be gracious means to be pleasantly kind, benevolent (useful, doing good), merciful, compassionate, tender, mild, gentle! This is by no means a call to throw out truth, but there is a God exalting way, that apparently benefits our own reputations, to handle truth.


We are called to be kind in order to avoid dishonoring the word of God. (Titus 2) The Law of kindness is to drip from our tongues, not just the law!(Proverbs 31:26)

I want to be a gracious woman. I know my sisters in Christ want to be too.

So, Lord willing, in the next few Tuesdays I am going to work through what it means to be a gracious woman. You can come a long for the ride if you like! :)