Build your house.

I love houses.

Proverbs 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

* I read this verse the other night and attempted to think on it as I was falling asleep. I was successful in sleeping, not so much in thinking. But I came across it this morning again. What an odd little verse.

I was praying, “Lord, how do I build my house when I don’t OWN a house? When I am something of a ‘renter’?”

I felt him say to me, “Let me ask you this. Is a house made up of mortar and bricks and tile, or is it made up of the people who live in it?”

In the study Bible section it pointed me back a couple chapters to Proverbs 9, and the first few verses read something like this:

“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has prepared her animals and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks sense she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight.’”

So then, all things considered, is a house made up of wood and nails, or of the people that live in it?

I think this verse definitely goes to show that the house of the wise is filled with people who have abandoned their simple ways. After all, isn’t that what the lady in ch. 9 was asking for? “Come to my house, and get rid of your simple ways.”

Do you ever feel like your ways are simple? Like you are just kind of walking through without seeing anything?  

Also in Proverbs is this picture of Lady Wisdom herself who goes to the head of busy streets, full of people who are bustling about. People coming from somewhere. Going somewhere. She sees all of their to and fro and cries out to them saying, “How long will you simple people love your simple ways?!!”

Simple ways? Aren’t they busy? Aren’t their days scheduled in huge binders and thoroughly thought out?

Yes.

And their well laid plans are simple ways.

All of their well laid plans don’t mean anything.

If simple ways are something to be thrown away, something that doesn’t belong in the house of the wise, and houses are comprised by the people who reside there, then what kind of “house” is built by the wise woman? How can I build my “house” before I own four walls?

By becoming a woman who shatters the illusion of living a life of simple ways.

Is being a wise “house” builder someone who lives on purpose?

I was driving somewhere yesterday, thinking about how many unfortunate outfits I saw at the grocery store that morning, and thought, “Goodness sakes. Get dressed on purpose, people.”

I kind of laughed at the blunt thought that crossed my mind, but then wondered what life would be like if I got dressed on purpose every morning?

What I am going to say is very strange, and will not make sense to probably the majority of you, but clothes are a spiritual experience for me.

I know. I know.

I will go further.

There have been times in my life where I have seen some fabulously dressed woman and have learned more about the character of God than I have from some sermons. Something about it just made switches turn on in my head.

I know. I know.

Back to the question. What if I got dressed on purpose every morning? Surely I am not the only person in the world who views clothes like I do. And what if I intentionally get dressed for THAT ONE PERSON I might see that day who will be blessed by my white trench coat?

Maybe this is pushing the envelope.

But what about if you went to the store on purpose and talked to your clerk as the cash register on purpose? Or the tenant who rents land from you? Or your FedEx driver?

What if your house was a house void of simple ways?

I want mine to be. Regardless of whether I own the roof over my head.

The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.