Some of the tasks skillfully performed by the model matron in the final chapter of Proverbs are obsolete. For example, my wife, who is most certainly a Proverbs 31 wife and mother, has neither shopped for nor bought a field. Nor does she know much about selecting rawwool and flax. But on the other hand, I know that in the aisles at Target or Krogers, Sarah could run surpassing circles around the biblical Proverbs 31 wife as she provisions our household in ways that are just as essential as buying fields, wool, and flax was in Solomon’s day.

Setting humor aside, of course, the ideal woman presented in this chapter is classic, one of the most eloquent depictions of motherhood done to godly standards. And if there’s one verse from the chapter that speaks eloquently to the chapter’s whole, I like verse 25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

Laughing at days to come doesn’t come naturally. Yes, such laughter requiresstrengthanddignityof character, because we don’t typically think of the future as a laughing matter. Ourdays to comeoften portend anxiety about rearing children, providing for loved ones, uncertainty about careers, worries over finances, old age, failing health, and the inevitable, death.

But with the inner strength that comes from godly character and confidence in God, the Proverbs 31 woman gazes confidently into the murky future. A thoughtful smile creases her face, a sparkle in her eye beams happiness, and she laughs! This woman understands what Jeremiah wrote: “Happy are those who trust in the LORD, who rely on the LORD” (Jer. 17:7).

For this woman, happiness is not a transient emotion that ebbs and flows with circumstances. Her happiness is a state of being, fixed by her confident reliance on God. And to bless everyone, guys and gals alike, Jeremiah used the gender-neutral pronounthose. That means thatallof God’s children can clothe themselves with strength and dignity, laughing at their days to come.

Let’s then increase in godly character, laughing at our future days to the glory of God. He cradles those futures in his sufficient hand.