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Topic: Green (10/22/09)
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TITLE: Who Can Find A Righteous Woman? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Leigh Ann Webb
10/28/09 -
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“Who can find a righteous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”
Concrete driveway cool to my little feet, rusty-red bricks bumpy and rough to my fingers, a meticulously clean garage shading me from the summer heat and the sound of the snapping and popping of green beans in my aunt’s hands filter through my mind as I reflect on my idle days of summer as a child.
In the morning, my Aunt Margaret, sitting in her black lacquer rocking chair, an apron always around her neck and hands that were always busy talks and laughs with her daughters, cousins and other family members that sit and pass the time before canning vegetables and planning for the winter to come while in the heat of the summer morning. My aunt is always busy, never still.
“She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.”
Sitting at her feet in the playroom, I can still hear the sound of her sewing machine tapping like a tiny woodpecker. The fabric taking shape magically under her fingers to become clothes for her five children, herself and for numerous quilts that would keep us all warm in the winters of the years to come. She is always prepared, always working.
“She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff…She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.”
Sheets blowing softly in the summer breeze on the clothesline in her back yard. I would run my hands across their dampness and imagine that I was a princess in a castle with billowing drapes. My aunt, clothespins clinched between her teeth, puts up sheets, towels and clothes to dry. She is diligent, ever busy.
“She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.”
A lunchtime meal prepared for her entire family. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sea shell noodles, peppers, cucumbers, biscuits, corn. A feast every day as my Uncle John comes home for his lunch hour. The Channel 9 news on the TV, my uncle napping quickly before heading back out. My aunt, sitting only briefly for a quick minute of The Young and the Restless, then up again to rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher. Left overs put away for later. She is never wasteful.
“The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of his life.”
The quiet of an afternoon nap for me. My aunt still works away. Cleaning, canning, folding clothes, ironing clothes. Her job never finished but always perfect. Only kind words from her lips- always full of love.
“She openeth her mouth with wisdom: and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”
My mother comes to pick me up after her long day at work. I leave in the car, my aunt preparing for her family’s arrival for supper. I wonder, does she ever rest? A righteous woman I have found.
“She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her…Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”
King James Version-Proverbs 31: 10-31
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Effective interspersing of the scriptures with the story. Great job.