A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

In 1966, I happened on a girl and spent two years of pondering the value of that pearl.

She has a face and heart all full of love and filling.

And so I sold my singleness, all 50 years, God willing.

And I have never once looked back for fear of what I missed, if ever God was good to me, it was the wedding

kiss. Four years and happy were the first, without a child to bless.

And so we cultivated joy and fields of faithfulness.

Then, like a mighty let there be from Genesis page one, another soul was born on earth and we beheld a sun. But I had eyes for something more to watch God make another out of a girl, my college

pearl. I watched him make a mother.

A kind of revelation, this, just as the ancient say,

how much of Christ there is to see in her maternal way.

Eight years and two more happy sons, all priceless to the minute,

are like an unrolled open scroll with God's own message in it.

Charm is deceitful, beauty vain, though all the world has gazed, but when a woman fears the Lord, she shall

be truly praised.

The text for this morning is Proverbs 31 verse 30.

Charm is deceitful, beauty, vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Let's notice the context first of all.

It's a very unusual one.

You all know what an acrostick is, right? M is for the million things she gave me. O means only

that she's growing old. T is for the tears she said to save me. H her heart of purest gold, E is for her eyes of love, light shining,

R means right and right she'll always be. That's an acrostic. And that's exactly what we've got here in Proverbs

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