Strength for today.

There’s a piece of scripture that I’ve been carrying around in my tote bag written on a post-it note for the last week. Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

I looked up what another translation says and it worded the first part of the verse this way: Strength and dignity are her clothing.

In a devotional I’m using right now there’s a lot of emphasis on the characteristics of being a virtuous woman of God by using the instruction in Proverbs 31. Verse 25 keeps coming back to me. I’ve come across the post-it in my bag at random times…when I was in line at Target, walking into work the other morning I put my keys back into my bag after locking my car and I brushed against it, the post it actually fell on the floor of my office once this week too.

I read the post it & my mind goes back to those two words: strength and dignity. And then I read again the way this virtuous woman owns these characteristics…she is clothed with them…they cover her. They hold onto her so tightly that no matter what happens in the coming days, in the future, she faces it with joy and laughter.

Wow. I feel far from that virtuous woman most of the time. I seem to crumble so easily with struggles like lacking patience & lack of control…those characteristics seems so far from strength and dignity.

I drove home to my parent’s house this evening. It’s been over a week since I’ve had a day off so I was thankful for the opportunity to drive up to Fort Wayne for Labor Day to have some rest. I plugged in my phone to listen to Pandora during my drive and while I was fumbling for the right cord in my tote bag I came across the post it for Proverbs 31:25 again. I re-read the scripture out loud and let out a sigh…here again I was feeling anything but strong, honestly I was feeling tired.

I started to drive and suddenly the Pandora channel started to play one of my favorite hymns, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, as I started to sing a long I realized what I was singing… “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow”

I realized how wrong I had been about my little post-it note I have been hauling around all week. Only through God’s amazing faithfulness, is where I gain strength. Not strength that I could maintain perfectly in this human body on this Earth…but strength for this day…this moment. Of course, I fail. Of course, I am weak. Through my surrender trust in Him…through God working and alive in me…through His grace I can strive to clothe myself more and more with His strength and dignity.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness.