Beautiful Hands with Guest Courtney Joseph

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In chapter two of the book I talk about biblical examples of hospitality: Abigail, Lydia, Dorcas, Boaz, Sarah and Abraham.  They all used what God had given them to reach out to others.

What has he given you?

Hands.

We’ll hear about our hands from today’s guest, my friend Courtney Joseph.

Courtney blogs at WomenLivingWell.org on the topics of faith, marriage, parenting, and homemaking. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for 14 years. She homeschools her son and daughter and is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute.

In November 2009, she was featured on the Rachael Ray show on the topic of marriage. Her passion to see “women live well” inspired her in 2010 to start a second blog called GoodMorningGirls.org. There women gather together to dig into their Bibles daily through tech accountability groups and on-line Bible studies.

From her heart:

P.S. Your Hands are Beautiful

The Proverbs 31 Woman has always dazzled me with her amazing ability to do it all!  In the first few verses of Proverbs 31, we learn that this woman is a description of the type of woman King Lemuel’s mother would like her son to marry.

The Proverbs 31 woman rises early, works eagerly, shops wisely, is extremely productive and she uses her evenings to get work done too!

Then, in Proverbs 31:20, there is a feature of this beautiful woman pointed out for the first time – it’s “her hands”.

 “She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20 NKJV

 Previously in the chapter, her hands have been furiously working sewing, planting, cooking and shopping. And here they take center stage as she reaches out to those outside of her home with them.

Look down and examine your hands. Are they young or old? soft or calloused? sun spotted? Do your veins show? Do you think your hands are beautiful?

Often our hands are one of the first places to show our age – they have worked hard serving our husbands, children, and the needy. What a blessing it is to have two hands!

My sister Jennifer, once shared this story with me – (these are her words):

P.S. Your Hands Are Beautiful.”

This was what my in-laws wrote inside my birthday card at the end of their very nice note to me.

A few weeks before my birthday, I was at a family get-together, and something came up about “hands”. I’m not sure how exactly the conversation went, but I know that I made the comment that the one place I have started to see my body aging is in my hands.

When I look down at them, which I realized is frequently during the day, they have begun to look different, older to me.

My mother-in-law said that the one thing she remembered about her own mother was her beautiful hands. I remembered her sharing about this before, and I believe that she meant more than just the outside beauty of beautiful skin with perfectly groomed nails.

Those who had the privilege of knowing her mother, know that her life was one of active service to our Lord and that she did have beautiful hands because they did beautiful things for His glory.

When I read my birthday card with the message, “P.S. Your hands are beautiful”, the full meaning of that small statement touched me.

It reminded me of what Paul said to the church at Thessalonica. I Thessalonians 4:11 says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anyone.”

These verses should cause us to look at the work that we do as women and ask ourselves, am I working faithfully with my hands in my daily life?

Is my work winning the respect of outsiders?

Am I bringing glory to my Lord with the works of my hands?

Would God think that my hands are beautiful?”

Now……look down and examine your hands now a second time with a new perspective. Do not judge the beauty of your hands by the outside – but rather by lives they have touched.

Walk with the King!

Courtney

 Ps. Your hands are beautiful!

(This post is an excerpt from Courtney’s FREE eBook titled “The Proverbs 31 Woman – One Virtue at a Time.”)

TODAY’S TWO GIVEAWAYS:

In this giveaway – everyone is a winner!

You are all welcome to go to Courtney’s website at www.WomenLivingWell.org and “Subscribe” (find this in the right sidebar)…you will receive a link to her FREE Proverbs 31 eBook at the bottom of the next article sent out via email.

AND:

One of you will receive this “Beautiful Hands” giveaway that includes:

~  Some Organic Olive Oil nail & hand salve

~ A bottle of pale, bubble-gum-pink nail polish for beautiful hands (or toes!)

~ A pair of bath gloves

~ A spring-y oven mitt

~ A Ghiradelli dark chocolate-raspberry bar

Now, to be entered in the random drawing for this giveaway, tell us something you could do with your hands in the near future to bless a family member, friend, co-worker, church member or stranger.

REMEMBER: We are also interacting over at Karen Ehman’s Book Studies on Facebook.Click here to “like” the page & join us. Starting this weekend there will be giveaways there too based on info from the book!

photo credit

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  4. I will be using my hands to plant a garden this year. I used to garden years ago, but I started working full-time and had to stop gardening. I don’t work outside my home anymore and now have plenty of time to get that garden going! I babysit my son’s children during the week and I am really looking forward to showing them how to plant and tend a garden and then enjoy the fruits of our labor!

  5. My grandmother had the loveliest hands I’d ever seen. Her palms were scar tissue from where she put out a fire with her bare hands that had enveloped my mother’s dress when my mother was a little girl and had snuck a box of matches and tried to light candles on her Mud Birthday Cake.

  6. My hands are ugly. I mean it! My nails are brittle, I played basketball for many years and have had more than one jammed finger. I have no doubt my grandchildren will witness the curling of my limbs as I age with arthritis. There is NOTHING ashteticly pleasing about my hands. However, here are a few things my hands can do. First, they are clean & groomed, I keep them that way so that I can apply bandaids to boo boos, or remove stuff from someones eyes or nose without scratching them, My hands are soft enought o wipe tears away and firm enough to protect. My hands are big, and I mean big. I am nearly 6 feet tall as a woman. I am not petite. My hands can hold a whole lot of candy, so when you come by my house on halloween let me grab a handfull for your bag. haha.. Recently my hands learned to do something new, crochet. Yep. and now my girls (8 & 5) are learning to crochet. What are we making? Blankets. But what in the world will we do with them? We have decided to give them to an assisted living center a mere 4 miles away. Pretty lap blankets for those in the assisted living home makes my girls feel great. The elderly don’t seem to mind a missed loop or crooked edge when the lap blanket is made by an 8 year old girl. My girls get the joy of giving, learn a valuable craft and are on the right path of being a Proverbs wife one day.

  7. Today we used our hands to make chocolate chip cookies for a homeschool mom and a dinner for a grieving mom. I like to make meals for others.

  8. I could bless my co-worker going through chemo by baking her some pre-cooked dishes for dinner. Thanks for the reminder.

  9. I have been sending an ecouragement note daily to someone who is on my heart, just to let them know I am thinking and praying for them.

  10. Loved this devotion. My precious mother-in-law embodies 1 Thess. 4:11. She is in her sixties now and has absolutely led a gentle, quiet, God-fearing, hardworking life. I have caught a glimpse of her hands before and thought to myself how beautiful they were. They have worked hard in a dry cleaning business for 30 plus years. They used to teach children at kindergarten. They cook endless meals for her family and others in need. They are showing signs of aging but to me that adds to the beauty. They always have a fresh coat of lotion on them and are manicured modestly. They are physically beautiful but now I can share with her how they are spiritually beautiful as well. With my hands I plan to send her a copy of this devotion along with a handwritten note that tells her P.S. Your hands are beautiful!

  11. What a beautiful way to look at your hands. I had been seeing my hands as getting older, through my granddaughters’ eyes. Now I see love.

  12. I have been thinking a lot about how to honor my husband I when we first started dating and the early years of marriage (before kids) I would give him a back rub. I am going to start this again and so my hands will be a way of honoring him.

  13. My hands have always been used “hard” in cleaning, gardening, and many other daily projects and tasks. Often my hands are rough and the nails a bit ragged; I have occasionally wanted to hide them. Recently my hands are showing signs of age with the veins raised slightly, light brown spots appearing, thumbs aching; they remind me of my mother’s hands. After reading these many posts I felt reminded to thank God for all the things my hands can do and will continue to do. What a blessing it is to be able to plant flowers and iron a table cloth or diaper a grandbaby with the hands that He gave us to serve Him.

  14. Many years ago my daughter told me my hands looked like Nana’s (my mom). I told her thats because we are hard workers. Like many of you, I’ve looked at my hands (sometimes daily) since then with a sense of pride because I am still a hard worker but also because of the way they look.
    This study has given me a new prospective of the not just the look of my hands but what a blessing they are. God has blessed me the gift of service and until today I did not understand the depth of what this gift has really meant to me and others in my life to serve family, friends and those in need until this study.
    Thank you Lord for touching the heart of such a beautiful woman and thank you Courtney for “Walking With The King”.

  15. I enjoy sharing the things that I bake. I have a bunch of ripe bananas on my counter right now. I am looking forward to baking some mini-loaves of banana bread to share with my coworkers. When I use a mini-loaf pan, I find that I am able to share with more people. I like that!

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