A wife of noble character who can find?  She is worth far more than rubies (Proverbs 31:10).

So it looks like the 31st day of the month is going to be "Marci Appreciation Day" at my house for the next year (at least, as long as I'm doing the Proverbs 365 project).  Seriously, it's hard for me to read Proverbs 31's epilogue about the "wife of noble character" and not come away with a deeper, more profound appreciation for my own wife.

I personally don't read this section of the Bible as being some over-idealized view of "what the perfect wife should be" -- so much as I read it to be "Sheesh, would ya look at all the amazing things that our women do for us!?!  They're incredible!  Can't you see how incredible they really are?!?"  I imagine that you could read the question in verse 10 as being some kind of bitter old bachelor's complaint... But I think it can also be read as the wondrous musings of a grateful husband.  "How did I end up with such a treasure as my wife?  I may not have fully realized it at the time we got married -- but I really hit the jackpot!"

Well this is, in any event, what I think to myself when I read Proverbs 31.  My wife is a tremendous gift from God -- not just beautiful but strong, not just dutiful but extravagant, not just a domestic servant but a true business-savvy dynamo.  After nearly 12 years of marriage, I'm still coming to a fuller and fuller realization of Marci's immense value as wife, mother, and woman of God.  How did I ever find such a woman??? She is worth far more than rubies...