Proverbs 31: 16. "She Invests"

Proverbs 31: 16     She considers a field and buys it;
From her profits she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 31: 16.  She doesn’t buy the property just because it’s cute.  She doesn’t want the field because, “So-and-so bought his wife a field, and all the real ballers got fields now.”  She gets the field because she is going to plant the field and work the field, and once the field becomes profitable she can upgrade to a vineyard which will gain her family entry into the lucrative wine market.

This isn’t a vanity purchase.  It is an investment in her family’s future.

Investments take her time and her labor work and her perseverance, but over time, investments appreciate and pay off. 

Bro, you don’t need a woman who only brings back purchases.  From time to time she should bring home an investment.  

The sister ought to come home with a new degree or certification so she can get a raise, a pack of seeds so you never have to buy vegetables again, , a new book  she just wrote, a ball of yarn for the sweaters she’s gonna sell, a mixer for the cupcakes she peddles out of the back door, a set of tools for the cars she fixes on the side, a job, or something.  Something that appreciates and adds value for your family’s future.

Notice that the woman described in Proverbs 31: 16 doesn’t expect her husband to do all of the work.  She appraises the land.  She negotiates the purchases.  She plants.  Not because she’s needs a backup plan in case this marriage thing doesn’t work but because she knows that this family is forever and she is investing in that future.

When my wife and I got married neither of us had finished college.  Since our wedding she has earned 4 degree, including 2 master’s degrees and an Ed.S.  You have to understand that my wife doesn’t really like taking classes, and she HATES writing papers.  She has 2 master’s degrees and an Ed.S.  That’s a lot of classes and a loooooot of papers. 

She didn’t put herself through all of that because it was required for a high school science teacher nor was she satisfying a sense of vanity or competition.  She pre-calculated the career raises and retirement benefits, factored in job satisfaction from the changing job titles with the 2^nd masters and compared it all to tuition costs over time.  The investments were worth it.  Well worth it.

So, bro, before you trip about her going back to school, writing that music, getting that industrial sized mixer, or ordering pizza on Thursday because she’s got an extra-large order to fill by the weekend------ chill.  Take a breath and consider the return on her investment.   She isn’t neglecting her wifely duties.  She is fulfilling them.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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