Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31:25

I so enjoy simply breaking things down into the definitions of words to understand what is going on.

Strength: “the quality of being strong; physical strength; mental or emotional qualities necessary to deal with stressful situations; the capacity to withstand great force or pressure”

Honor: “high respect; adherence to what is right; fulfill and obligation” …also called an “ornament”

There were a couple other phrases, but these were the gist of them all.

I think we might all agree that “clothing” is something we wear. My husband once preached about putting on our spiritual ‘underclothes’–that was quite interesting.

But we ARE to put on things that are not just physical. So “the mental qualities necessary to deal with stressful situations” could be something we are to actually, consciously wear… spiritually.

And since we’ve already talked about what she might wear physically, I think I’ll focus on the spiritual dressing here.

I must put on strength. Clothing is not usually something worn for days on end without changing out of an old and into a new item. So, applying that spiritually, we need to put ON a new “strength” every day.

I must put on honor. We’ve talked a little about respect. We must show respect towards our husband, as this is God’s plan for marriage. And when we “adhere to right and fulfill obligations” in our daily lives, we show the respect we have towards God and His plans.

Each day this “ornament” must be renewed. We must choose this fulfillment of obligations, this adherence to what we know is right. This becomes an ornament of our spirit.

These thoughts are rather weighty. This is purely a heart issue, but it will manifest itself in actions and deeds, in our speech and dress, in our attitude and reactions.

And as the verse continues… our rejoicing will come.

It may not happen the same day we chose to do right when it is the most difficult thing to do.

But it will come. {Remember that God specializes in the impossible.}

It may be a year or even a decade later. Or it may not happen until our own children are fully grown and we see them making right choices, because we did.

There may even be sometimes that our rejoicing does not come until heaven, with eternal rejoicing!

But our hearts will know rejoicing in time to come, because God tells us it will be so. So, let us put on strength {His strength!} and put on honor, daily… even hourly, and expect the rejoicing to come later.