Busy Hands, Clothed Family

Busy Hands, Clothed Family

She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. . . . Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. . . . She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes.

Proverbs 31:13, 19, 21

An Amish mother sits by the fire, warming herself as her fingers work with the wool in her hands. Not many Amish women spin wool or flax, but more Amish women can be found knitting.

In the early days, Amish women knit shawls and capes, mittens and gloves, typically in solid dark colors consistent with the plain dark clothing worn by men and women. Between 1860 and 1920, Old Order Amish women in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, knit colorful knee-length stockings, many with scalloped tops in vivid contrasting hues from purple, rose, and pink to brown, green, and blue. These stockings were part of private dress, as the long dresses and laced black boots hid their stockings. . . .

The Amish began to buy their stockings and mittens during the first half of the twentieth century, though some knitters continued to make mittens and stockings for their families. Women also knit and crocheted rugs, placemats, and lamp mats to place beneath kerosene lamps.

It’s amazing really how women have the honor of clothing and caring for their families. Our children don’t have to worry about clothes to wear or food to eat because of us!

Proverbs 31:21 puts it this way: “When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet” (NIV). The term scarlet has spiritual meanings, too. The scarlet color can be applied to the robe of righteousness. As one commentary puts it “the righteousness of Christ . . . is a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm; a sufficient shelter from the cold of snow, and all inclemencies of the weather; by which the vindictive wrath and justice of God may be signified.”

Godly mothers do more than just clothe their children with physical garments. We wrap them with the Word of God and cover them with our prayers. And the garment of salvation is one our children can wear for life!

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for the strength to care for my family. Thank You that Your righteousness can clothe them for eternity!