A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

The Ideal Woman

Read: Proverbs 31:20

Although Imelda Marcos came from an impoverished background, she lived a lavish lifestyle as the wife of the Philippine president. Some sources estimate that she and Ferdinand embezzled billions of dollars while he was in office. Imelda reportedly owned more than a thousand pairs of shoes. She was widely criticized for her decadent lifestyle as her country sank deeper into debt and crushing poverty. In the documentary Imelda, she defended her extravagant spending by saying that she needed to be a role model and “a star for the poor people.”

The ideal woman described in Proverbs 31 takes the opposite approach to the poor. Although she has a family to care for, a household to run, and businesses to manage, this woman also looks out for the needy in her community. She doesn’t just mail a check to an organization or treat needy people kindly when she passes them on the street, she is actively involved in meeting their needs. Perhaps she shares some of the cloth she weaves, the clothing she sews, or the food that she so carefully prepares (see Proverbs 31:14-15). Rather than treat the poor as a cause, she “opens her arms” to them and cares for them as individuals.

We have an overwhelming number of opportunities to help the poor. God may be calling us to become personally involved with a needy individual or an organization that ministers to the poor. When he calls us to make monetary donations, it’s hard to choose which organizations to support. It’s also difficult to decide how much we can spare when we need to be building up a nest egg for the future. But God has such deep compassion for the needy that when we help them, he regards it as an action done for him. He promises to reward our generosity—and that’s the ideal nest egg.

If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD—and he will repay you!

Proverbs 19:17