Give Her the Product of Her Hands

Josiah helping me with the frame of the new desk. It is almost done now, I just need a top, and I need to sand and poly it.




On Wednesday of this week I was at "the chicks'" house. This is not a house full of little yellow puffy chickens, although they are cuddly and loveable, but rather they are a wonderful family with the name of Chick. Anyway, I was there with my fun and rather odd friend Alison. I don't know if you have met Ali, but she is the kind of woman who played with GI Joes, and Tonka trucks as a girl, but still embroiders, knits, cooks, sews, and etc. She is one of those weird type of anomalies, but when you think of it we all are. I have met women who engage in all of those feminine hobbies, but would never wear a dress or be considered a delicate feminine lady.

Then there are women like me, I hardly like calling myself a woman even, which tells you something about myself. I would rather think of myself as a lady or a little girl. Anyway, I listen to these incredible ladies discuss sewing and I don't know whether I should feel guilty for not being interested or if I should be pleased that I am not stuck sewing clothes for my children. They enjoy it, it is one of their hobbies, but I cannot seem to get myself to enjoy these feminine past-times. I don't understand how they can read a book on how to make a particular knot and then duplicate it in their work, how do they even understand those books?

I like to do what most would call "man's work" I sometimes get sad over the fact that my husband always fixes the car and I don't get a chance to rotate the tires, or replace the spark plugs. Please don't get me wrong, I love the fact that he does these things, but sometimes I want to do them. I have boys, it makes sense, as when they get older I will be outside with them blazing trails. I could never teach a girl how to sew, or knit, I don't even know how to do that. In fact, I am not even that fond of cooking. I like to work with wood to build things, I love yard work, and my job growing up was dump runs. But in spite of all of this, my friend, John, called me a romantic. He is right of course, I may like to do these manly things, but I love a good love story, or a good song. I am a sucker for a chick flick and Jane Austen.

I know so many women who aspire to do great things. It may not seem great at the time, but all of those countless hours spent working on something that blesses the family is worth it. It is still cheaper to make your own clothing, food, or furniture, and that pleases me. On Wednesday, I saw some ladies take an interest in something that I do not understand, embroidery (I think), and I thought, "that is such a noble feminine hobby," and you know what? They are working with their hands!

Now where have I read that before? Oh yes, the very popular chapter in Proverbs... 31. You know this chapter it tells of a worthy woman. I don't know a single woman who reads this chapter and thinks "Oh yeah! I am doing it all, I have got this Proverbs 31 woman thing in the bag!"

Have you seen this woman? She works with her hands, and you know what is great? She doesn't just sew or cook or embroider. She buys land, works out, does yard work, feeds the hungry, makes her own clothes. Okay so the words "she works with wood" or "she works on cars" is not in there. But who cares? "She works with her hands in delight". I work with my hands, it may be "man's work", but it is work and it is with my hands, and it saves my family money. I am not even going to mention (or maybe I am) that when I work with my hands, my boys help, and I would rather be teaching them "man's work" than how to embroider pillows.

I am not yet a well-accomplished woman, but hey if that means I need to spend hours at a machine, or cross-stitching (which I did as a kid), then I would rather not be "well-accomplished". What do you do with your hands? Is it something that will praise you in the gates?


Elijah making a coat rack for the closet