A Good Wife: The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spo
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:11-12
I would believe that, like the woman of this famous proverb, all of us blessed with a husband would say that we do our husbands "good" and not "evil". None of us intentionally do evil to our husbands (I hope not anyway!) But I was struck recently when I looked up just what the word "good" means in this verse. In our modern language, "good" is an extremely common, almost overused, word. However, don't be fooled. Check out all that is packed into this small, rather ordinary word. *
She will do him good by being....
Skillful
Competent
Kind
Affectionate
Benevolent
Faithful
Pleasant
Agreeable
Cheerful
Honourable
Elegant
Polite
Real
Merciful
Respectful
Festive
Commendable
Proper
Companionable
Sociable
Mild
Calm
Loving
Sweet
Wow. Did you have any idea that "doing him good" involved all these things? Although not listed in any particular order of importance, it is interesting to note that only the first 2 of the 24 have anything to do with physical expertise; the remaining 22 are qualities of character. This gives us the undeniable fact that personality far outweighs proficiency. Many of us may excel in physical abilities but just how are we doing in regards to character?
To make it especially clear, if the above list describes what "doing him good"involves, then let's see what the opposite, "doing him evil", would entail. The word "evil", of course, also includes moral sin and wickedness, but for our purpose in recognizing the opposite of the above goodqualities, "doing him evil" would involve being...
Unskilled
Incompetent
Harsh
Callous
Selfish
Untrustworthy
Displeased
Argumentive
Joyless
Dishonourable
Crude
Insulting
Hypocritical
Hard-hearted
Disrespectful
Glum
Disreputable
Unbecoming
Antagonistic
Withdrawn
Easily irritated
Temperamental
Unloving
Resentful
Hmmm... rather hard-hitting, isn't it? And, to be very blunt, when we demonstrate these traits, we are doing our husbands evil and not good.
Of which are we more concerned - our proficiency or our personality?
We know that our flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that [we] cannot do the things that [we] would (Galatians 5:17) but thankfully we also have the words of Philippians 4:13 [We] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us].
May we seriously search our hearts and see whether we are doing our husbands good or evil. If we are brave enough, perhaps we should show this list to our husbands and ask for their evaluation of our "doing good". Perhaps we need to reassess our character and renew our commitment to treating our husbands "good", putting into action all that this little word involves.
May it be said of each one of us,
She [does] him good and not evil all the days of her life
and then, be it no wonder that...
the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her.
Written by Zonya Bergsma
Reach Hearts Ministries
*According to Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionary
