Women in Christ: A Virtuous Woman

Today I'd like to open up a series of discussions about what it means to be a woman in the gospel of Christ. Personally I feel that there are a lot of women who want to be good Christian women but with so many different voices out there trying to tell us what we “need” to do sometimes it's hard to listen to what Christ wants us to do. As we discuss and ponder some of these things together and share in each other's wisdom hopefully we can help one another on our way to being able to do just that.

For our first few discussions I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the scriptures say about righteous women.

I don't know about you but for a generic look at some ideals of womanhood I tend to think of the Proverbs 31 woman.

Proverbs 31:10 starts off by saying “who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far beyond rubies.” I think it's interesting because if you look through the translations – the hebrew word that was translated into virtuous was chayil. According to the Strong's Concordance, chayil is associated with concepts of strength, might, efficiency, wealth, ability, force, and army. Being virtuous was a strength even comparable to an army! This is no subservient, enslaved, sheltered woman, this is a woman of power and value!

So what are the virtues that give this woman her power and value? Proverbs 31 lists some possible answers. Some of the virtues that I see when I read through this section are that she is trustworthy, she is hard-working, she is prepared, she provides for her house, she understands business and industry, she looks after the poor, and she speaks with wisdom and kindness.

What are some of the virtues that you think are important for a woman that desires to be a strong and powerful force for good?