Welcome.

I was in my youthful years, a teenager, and was attending Girl’s Camp. I was somewhere in the mountains of Nevada. It was night time and dark. I sat, one among many, around a blazing bonfire and listened to one of the presiding brethren speak to us.

He began talking about a woman he called “The Proverbs 31 woman.” I wasn’t familiar with her and didn’t know who she was. From his remarks, I gathered she was somebody referred to in the Bible. Thanks to my skills to discern the obvious, I figured she was in Proverbs and perhaps in the 31^st chapter.

That particular speaker admonished us to grow up to become “Proverbs 31” women.

That very night I took to my tent and read about her.

I loved her instantly.

And I’ve been loving her ever since.

She’s the picture of extraordinarily divine!

First on the list, she’s virtuous. This characteristic alone gives her a price “far above rubies.” (Proverbs 31:10)

Her husband trusts her with all his heart. This is the kind of woman that “will do [her husband] good and not evil all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:12)

One very faithful Louisa within my own family history, a youth herself, wrote these words to her husband to be, a man many years her senior, “It is my will…to sweeten your life, for which woman was created for man..” (Life History, Arnold Abegg and Louisa Haag)

A magnificent Proverbs 31 woman, Louisa did her Arnold good all the days of her life – and his.

She knows how to work and uses her hands to bring about good works. Like Nephi and his people, she is industrious and labors with her hands. (2 Nephi 5:17) And she does so willingly. To help fulfill God’s purposes and bring about the great cause of Zion in meaningful, contributing ways.

“She is like the merchants’ ships.” (Proverbs 31:14) Heather Farrell, in “Walking With the Women of the Book of Mormon,” quoted scholar Jeffrey Mellefont who made an insightful observation that “there is a big difference between comparing a woman to a ship (which suggests that like ships, women are owned and steered by men) and comparing a ship to a woman.” (Farrell, H., “Walking With the Women of the Book of Mormon, pg 201) Mellefont declared, “Time and time again in the literature of the sea, ships are identified as the embodiment of positive attributes – courage, strength, nobility, partnership, protection, shelter, grace…” (Farrell, H., “Walking With the Women of the Book of Mormon, pg 201)

While the 31st chapter of Proverbs compares the woman first to the ship, the meaning seems to be that of the ship being compared to the women, that her attributes are those of a merchant ship as she, ship-like, secures food for her family, explores new possibilities and horizons, and makes worth while trades – just as ancient merchant ships used to do. Moreover an everyday thing like a boat is a beautiful symbol of her and her noble attributes. Love it.

She “riseth also while it is yet night.” (Proverbs 31:15) I have seared in my mind images of my own sweet mama rising in the 0:430 hour of darkness, kneading dough in her yellow bowl on the kitchen floor – creating food to sustain her little ones and husband, making cinnamon rolls for us to take and sell at school to make some money for a function we wanted to attend.

She ponders over potential decisions and once inspired, acts without delay and then gets to work beautifying and making her purchase yield.

Her loins, anatomically precious parts, are “[girded] with strength” and her arms are not weary, for they, too, have been blessed in sacred places and spaces. (Proverbs 31:17)

She returns and attends to her merchandise. Like the Gods in our own creations, she sees that it is “good.” (Proverbs 31:18) No matter impending darkness, her candle burns as a beacon to weary travelers.

She weaves and spins. She creates. Lovely and useful things. For herself and those for whom she has a sacred stewardship. The winter snows are of no consequence. Her family is warm and adequately clothed. As I grew into a young lady, I wore so many things carefully and lovingly sewn by the hands of my good mother.

She helps the poor and notices the needy. “God will provide” is surely her motto when she gives the last of something to another. And with her kind of faith, she pulls down His power and help, and He does provide.

“Her husband is known in the gates…” Why? Could it be largely because of her?

And how does she present herself? With “strength and honour.” Those two adornments are, in fact, “her manifest presence as well as her portrayed clothing.” (Proverbs 31:25)

She is kind as well as wise. In fact, kindness is a “law” unto her. (Proverbs 31:26)

She is never idle, always looking “well to the ways of her household.” (Proverbs 31:27)

Her guiding walk is one of reverence and awe towards her Lord. (Proverbs 31:30)

She is a woman who rightly detects and defers Satan’s counterfeits and lies and knows that “beauty is vain.” (Proverbs 31:30) The cosmetics with which she adorns herself are these: “for her lips, truth, for her voice, prayer, for her eyes, pity, for her hands, charity, for her figure, uprightness, for her heart, love.” (Barrett, I. “Heroic Mormon Women, pg. 10)

The Proverbs 31 woman is so very exquisite. And so is this promise to her from heaven:

“…she shall rejoice in time to come.” (Proverbs 31:25)

I realized many years ago in that tent in the mountains of Nevada that there wasn’t the Proverbs 31 woman. No, I myself could be a Proverbs 31 woman.

Very good news.

I have known so many.

Each contributing mightily to the cause of Zion.

Thank God for each one.

Unto all the world: She is so exquisite: the Proverbs 31 woman! God help me thus become!