10 A global worker woman of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than all the jewels in the world.
11-12 Her husband is one lucky man. She brings good to him all their globe-trotting lives.
13 She looks both in the open market and in shopping malls for the best buys, working hard to balance buying expensive imported goods and perhaps lesser quality local goods.
14 She’s not just like the trading ships that sail around the world, bringing goods from afar. She isa global shopper who wisely packs her suitcases with all the goodies that she and her family and friends will need for the next few years. Then, when returning to her birth country, she wisely stuffs the suitcases again with all the gifts the donors at home will need, or at least expect. Her suitcases are usually overweight on both sides of the world, but she sweetly smiles and prays her way through customs with minimal charges.
15 She gets up while it is still dark (5:45 a.m. year-round on the equator). After sitting at Jesus’ feet while the house is still quiet, she organizes her day, ensuring that there is enough food and tea for her family, the house help, and the 37 friends and neighbors who will drop in today.
16 This woman’s phenomenal business skills could earn her a job on Wall Street, but she uses those skills for a far greater eternal purpose.
17 She finds the best physical fitness routine for herself and stays in great shape, maintaining a good energy level, even in hot tropical climates or freezing Siberian winters.
18-19 She watches for bargains and is a skilled homemaker, on both sides of the world!
20 Her heart breaks for the poor people she sees around her constantly. The beggars and orphans on the streets often bring tears to her eyes. She struggles with the tension of living at a healthy level for her and her family while also being sensitive to the poor. But she generously and wisely gives in ways that will enable the poor to become self-supporting.
21 Somehow this wonder woman has clothes for all seasons ready for her family, even when the temperature may vary 75 degrees in one day as they fly from the southern to the northern hemisphere.
22-24 She either sews and mends clothes very well, or she knows the best local tailors who can produce clothes fit for a queen.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity, whether she is in a dusty rural village or a crowded urban train. She faces tomorrow with a smile that flows from trust in God’s loving sovereignty, even though the future in a volatile, hostile world is frighteningly uncertain.
26 She always speaks with God’s wisdom and kindness—fluently, in at least two languages!
27 With superhuman capacity, she coordinates all her household’s activities, including serving on the ministry leadership team, home schooling two children, and chauffeuring the other three children to school. She regularly drives all the kids to soccer games and swim team practices and music lessons and friends’ homes. Each day she sends 24 emails, remembering to attach pictures of the kids for the grandparents. She masterfully decorates her home with limited resources and grows local vegetables in her garden, bakes her own bread, makes her own granola and yogurt, cooks three delicious, nutritious, well-balanced meals a day, leads three Bible study groups, meets visitors from headquarters and supporting churches at the airport, entertains an average of 89 people per week, is a wise, patient mother and a loving wife . . . and regularly “is still and knows that He is God!”
28 No wonder her family and friends respect and praise her! She far outclasses those who stay within their comfort zones for a lifetime.
29 Beauty and charm may fade in the equatorial sun and in the pressures of cross-cultural living, but the woman to be most deeply admired is the one who lives in awe and reverence of the Lord, and who leads others to do the same.
30 Her ultimate reward will come in heaven when the Lord of the harvest greets her saying, “Well done, good and faithful GLOBAL WORKER WOMAN!”
©2014 Thrive