Proverbs 31:10-12

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION

10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

 

TRANSLATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL:

10 A teenage girl seeking to be a woman of character is hard to find, but her worth is beyond the silly Coach purses that people buy. ¹

11 Her friends and her family can trust her and rely on her throughout drama and hard times.

12 She is “for” them and supports them, even when others do not.

 

 

Okay, so as a girl in high school, you are not at a point in your life where you are wanting to get married right now – but this time is crucial as you are growing and in the beginning stages of figuring out who you are. Therefore, it is important to be living in a way that will set a firm foundation for the rest of your life. I think that you will be setting patterns for how you treat others right now that will continue as you get older. I know that, as I graduated high school and spent the summer at camp, I realized how I had been wrong in the way I treated others and the perspective that I had, so I had to correct it then. I don’t regret things in my life because I would rather learn from them than live in wishing things had been different, but I do think that if I went back and redid high school and some of my friendships I would be a completely different person, and I do wish people could see the changes in me.

That being said, I want to try to go through Proverbs 31 and help you apply it to your life as you are now. This is talking about being a wife of noble character, but I think a wife of noble character is going to be a woman of noble character, and the way she treats her husband and her family is how you can learn to treat your friends, your family, and any relationship in general that you have (romantic or not).

It is really rare to find teens who are wholeheartedly pursuing God. It’s easier to see in college because the Christians in college made a choice once they got out of their parents’ house that they wanted to go to church and continue to grow in their faith. In high school, it’s not that people don’t want to follow God, but I think a lot of times people just take their faith and their church for granted. It’s just a part of the routine. But once you step outside of that and really make your faith your own, not just what your parents and your pastor feed you, there is so much joy that comes from having an “all-consuming passion inside of [you].” ²

With your friends, you need to be someone that is not constantly taking. I realize how much this is engrained in my mind when I think about what my friends do for me, how they make me feel, if they buy me a birthday gift, if they ask me to hang out, etc. But we are not called to live self-centered lives. We are called to live a life that supports the needs of others and their good. ³ So, as you look at your friends, you do need friends that support you and build you up, but you need to be doing the same for them. Do you encourage them when they are going through something hard? Do you initiate hang out time? Do you love them even on their bad days? Same with your family. Can you support them and love them despite your differences? If you live with anyone long enough, you are going to have disagreements. I have seen it with my friends in college who live with the same roommate two years in a row – things start to bother them. If you can’t get along with your sister or your parents because you are sharing a space, how are you going to have roommates in college or a husband? No one is perfect, you have to make allowances for others’ faults, and this gets easier to do when you realize that you yourself are not perfect.

Also, are you consistent with your relationships, or are you the type of person that is friends with someone one week and the next week is talking behind her back or doing something she can’t stand? Can people have full confidence in you, trusting that you are loyal and you stick to what you say?

I challenge you to, as we are going through Proverbs 31, to look at your relationships in your life. Examine them, examine your mindset and why you are friends with certain people or maybe what causes fights with your siblings or parents. It’s really hard to change from the self-centered mentality since our culture is all about what you can get from life, but once you start giving and thinking of others, you get addicted to it!

 

¹ Pardon my silliness. Maybe it’s not Coach purses that high school girls are obsessed with, but it is one of the things I remember from high school that people always wanted. Why would you spend that much money on something? I think they went too far when they started making footwear… rain boots, in particular.

² From my drama song “The Motions” by Matthew West… if you didn’t hear it, it’s a great song

³ Romans 12:10, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3-8 stick out in my mind