Night Work

Sometimes, I think the Proverbs 31 woman must not sleep but only a few hours a night! Verse 15- She rises while it is yet dark, to provide food for her family. And then in verse 18- She perceives her merchandise is good, and her lamp does not go out by night.

Today, I am going to explore a little bit about her “night work”. The next verse says- “She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hand hold the spindle.” To be honest, I never knew what this meant. What is the distaff she is stretching her hands out to, and why is she holding a spindle? A very good book, I would recommend, and how I find some answers to questions I have, is the book Beautiful in God’s Eyes by Elizabeth George. As I have mentioned before, the Proverbs 31 woman has intrigued me for a long time. And this is a good book my sister recently leant me, because she knows my passion for answers about this woman! To proceed with the question of what exactly is her night work… I found answers in Mrs. George’s book. She says that “distaff and a spindle were used to convert processed wool and flax into yarn and thread.” Wow, so this woman wakes early, prepares food for her household plus some, then goes about her day working on gathering food, making clothes for her household, she plants a vineyard, she nurses the needy… And after all of this, she is still keeping a watchful eye over her household! THEN, this busy woman, after a long day decides to make yarn! As if she doesn’t have enough to do!

She doesn’t sit in front of the TV, she doesn’t go to bed early… she sits in front of the spinning wheel. This is not only productive, but it probably helped her body slow down from her busy day. The whirring noise of the spinning wheel, would start to put anyone to sleep.

My challenge here, is that am I not only slowing my body down for a restful nights sleep, but I need to be productive while doing it! So what can I do? Well, often I find things on my computer (I frequent moneysaving sights, stay-at-home mom sites, Christian mom sites), I also do some of my blogging at night. I read also. I read books on (mostly) being a woman & my Bible. I also make lists, lots of lists. My lists include weekly calendar, shopping lists, ideas I have, etc. I do this so I can unwind.

For the summer, we got rid of our Dish (TV). We never really watch TV in the summer, we spend all of our time outside. But now that it is getting a little colder, will we order it again? I don’t know! I kind of like, the quiet of the evening. Spending time preparing to make my family’s days run a little smoother, and my life a little less chaotic! I have found a huge difference in our lives.

Now, if I could just learn when to say when, and go to bed at a decent time!

“A wise woman builds her house…” Proverb 14:1