The One Year Wisdom for Women Devotional: 365 Devotions through the Proverbs (43 page)

June 9

Gossip Separates Friends

     
A troublemaker plants seeds of strife;

          
gossip separates the best of friends.

Today let’s have an honest, heart-to-heart talk about gossip. God hates gossip. Let’s lock that in right up front.

First of all, gossip is not helpful. What good does it do to know something bad, especially when you can’t do anything about it?

A very clear command of the Lord is to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12,
KJV
). May I ask, What part of gossip, negative talk, critical comments, and slander do you want people to do to you? So think before you speak. What is your motive?

It’s not fair. I never want to hear something about someone behind their back. That’s not fair. The scriptural pattern is, if there is something wrong, take it to that person privately.

Human nature tends to believe the negative. If you just hear one side to a story, it sticks with you, and you can start to doubt someone you valued or trusted before. Gossip can separate even the best of friends.

So what can we do and what should we do when someone brings up negative gossip? Well, abruptly change the subject. Don’t give a listening ear. When someone persists, I have actually left the room, politely but determinedly. And pray, pray that the Lord corrects the wrong, and pray that the Lord will wash your heart and make you a vessel of words of grace, not words of gossip and garbage.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Are you wondering why there are so many proverbs that address slander and gossip? Maybe it’s because there is so much slander and gossip. We are desensitized. If you watch any popular sitcom on TV, mocking people is the norm. No friendship or relationship is sacred. Reality shows, Hollywood tabloids, talk shows, and really almost every show on TV has a running dialogue of cutting others down. The more we watch these things, the more it becomes the norm for us.

Let’s Pray

Lord, wake me up and shake me up. I don’t want to become just like the world. Please help me notice and then refuse to listen to gossip in both TV and in real life. Then, most of all, help me not be the one who speaks it.

One Year Bible Reading

1 Kings 5:1–6:38; Acts 7:1-29; Psalm 127:1-5; Proverbs 16:28-30

June 10

Silver-Haired Crown

     
The silver-haired head is a crown of glory,

     
If it is found in the way of righteousness.

Let me speak a word to you ladies over fifty. If you embrace this phase of your life, it can be the sweetest of all. You can be a light shining ahead of the young women all around you, because there are many young moms who don’t have anyone to give them godly advice. They don’t have someone to teach them how to be in the Word for themselves. They don’t have anyone to teach them to respect or love their husbands. They don’t know how to be homemakers, or keep a budget, or prepare balanced meals.

In Titus 2:3-5 the older women are told to “be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands and children, be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed” (
NKJV
).

So I’d like to challenge some of my grey-haired sisters. Let’s take the next years of our life and ask the Lord how we can invest them. Ask God to show you several young women whom you can encourage. Is there a young wife you can invite over to teach her to make casseroles or pie crust or to shop for bargains at the grocery store? Is there a young woman you can take under your wing for accountability during her engagement process? Is there a young pastor’s wife you can pray for every day and send notes of encouragement? Because “the silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it’s found in the way of righteousness.”

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

If you are a young woman, indeed you are living in very challenging times. You are inundated from every angle by false information and perceptions of womanhood and motherhood, marriage and success. You indeed need someone older and wiser to encourage and guide you as Elizabeth encouraged Mary. The Lord has raised up many mentors who are available through books, websites, and videos. Let me mention two of my favorites: Fern Nichols (Moms in Prayer International,
www.MomsInPrayer.org
) and Emilie Barnes (author of
Survival for Busy Women
).

One Year Bible Reading

1 Kings 7:1-51; Acts 7:30-50; Psalm 128:1-6; Proverbs 16:31-33

June 11

Peace and Quiet

     
Better a dry crust with peace and quiet

          
than a house full of feasting with strife.

Strife. What is strife? Strife is “quarrels, struggles, conflict, competition, and contention.”

So let’s do a little reality check. What is the present state of your heart and soul and mind? Are you constantly wrestling and reacting? Are you defensive and protective? Are you frustrated, never satisfied? We live in a world that feeds this. It’s all around us, but the only time it really becomes dangerous is not when it’s all around us, but when it’s in us.

Our proverb today speaks of simplicity, just a crust of bread. It’s enough if you have peace and quiet.

The apostle Paul is such a great example to us. We know he wrote the book of Philippians from a prison cell in Rome. Maybe some days all he had for dinner was a crust of bread, but from that cell he gave us the real secret to peace and quiet in a troubling world. He said, “Rejoice in the Lord. Again I say ‘Rejoice.’ The Lord is near. So be anxious for nothing, thankful for everything, and pray the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” and “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content; for I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:4-7, 11-12, author’s paraphrase).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

The joy of simple, that’s want we need today. It’s summer. The world outside is full of life; let’s go for a walk. Stop and talk to a neighbor. Look for birds’ nests in the trees. Be still: listen to the sounds all around you. Look up: just the blue of the sky or the shape of the clouds can be a simple joy. Sit and watch some busy ants. Try to find a ladybug. Take deep breaths. Have a little talk with God your Father and tell him all the things you like about the world he made.

     
This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears

          
all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

     
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought

          
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; his hand the wonders wrought.

One Year Bible Reading

1 Kings 8:1-66; Acts 7:51–8:13; Psalm 129:1-8; Proverbs 17:1

June 12

Refining Fire

     
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,

     
But the L
ORD
tests the hearts.

The heat of trials and hardship to us are like the heat that the goldsmith applies to a lump of gold that he wants to make into a beautiful golden ring. Impurities are not visible, because they are imbedded in the core of that solid form. The goldsmith must hold the gold over the hottest part of the flame. As it melts into a liquid form, the impurities are released and they rise to the surface. This dross then can be skimmed away until the surface is clear. He never takes his eyes off the precious metal lest it stay in the fire too long or not long enough. How does he know that the gold is pure, fully refined? When he looks down and can see his own face reflected.

Can you see how this applies to us? Are you going through something so hard you feel you are melting down? When your child is sick in the hospital, a doctor has just found a lump, or your mom has a stroke, life changes a lot. All of a sudden the silly, frivolous things that used to seem so important just aren’t. Let the dross float to the surface, things like self-reliance, self-pity, selfish ambition, jealousy, and pride.

One of the things we must remember, though, is that this is not punishment. This is the refining fire. God has trusted you to go through this really hard thing, “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7,
NKJV
).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

How do you gain fresh hope and strength when you’re in the midst of a trial? Read the Psalms. They are songs for your soul. Many were written when David was going through painful circumstances. The Psalms give you words to honestly express your lowest lows. Then they give you words of victory and confidence in God.

Let’s Pray

Lord, please help me surrender to, not fight your work in my life. Help me to see your love and trust your redeeming purpose to make me a vessel fit for the master’s use.

One Year Bible Reading

1 Kings 9:1–10:29; Acts 8:14-40; Psalm 130:1-8; Proverbs 17:2-3