Fearing God

I recently started a Bible Study on Proverbs and this week's lesson was on fearing God. I had several Aha! moments as I have studied this week that were encouraging to me. One was as I looked at verses that had the phrase "fear of the Lord" or "fears the Lord" I came across a verse in Prov 31. You know the chapter that sometimes seems so overwhelming as the picture of the perfect wife and mom. Well, it simply said, "The woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised". It didn't say the one who had well-behaved children (wearing handmade clothes,of course), a perfectly clean house, neat yard, well-balanced artistically presented meals, nicely decorated house, was in great physical shape and had made the perfect education choice for her children all while maintaining a great marriage. It said a woman who fears the Lord. My job is to fear the Lord. Sure many of those other things will follow, some may not (depending on my gifts and talents), as I fear Him and seek to obey Him but He is to be my number one priority. What freedom. I think today so many woman get caught up in all the details of being the perfect Christian mom because it is a weighty responsibility that we have that we lose sight of our first priority : Fear the Lord!