Proverbs 31

The Ideal Wife

10: When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

*What makes a "worthy" wife? 

*How does she compare to "pearls"?

From Wikipedia:

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur.

The finest quality pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and the word pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, and admirable.

Almost any shelled mollusk can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within the mollusk's mantle folds, but virtually none of these "pearls" are considered to be gemstones.

Fine gem-quality saltwater and freshwater pearls can and do sometimes occur completely naturally, but this is rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or pearl mussels have to be gathered and opened, and thus killed, in order to find even one pearl, and for many centuries that was the only way pearls were obtained. This was the main reason why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in the past. In modern times however, almost all the pearls for sale were formed with a good deal of expert intervention from human pearl farmers.

A true pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. A "natural pearl" is one that formed without any human intervention at all, in the wild, and is very rare. A "cultured pearl", on the other hand, is one that has been formed on a pearl farm. The great majority of pearls on the market are cultured pearls.

Imitation or fake pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry, but the quality of the iridescence is usually very poor, and generally speaking, fake pearls are usually quite easy to distinguish from the real thing.

Quality natural pearls are very rare jewels.

Pearl is considered to be the birthstone for June.

I find this to be a good and interesting description of pearls.  In fact...try reading the description again and substitute "wife" in place of "pearl".  Now, we can be natural or cultured but we certainly don't want to be fake or imitation "wives".  I take truly to heart my vocation to be "wife" and mother.  I don't want there to be anything "fake" or "imitation" about that at all.  I hope that my husband will truly value me "beyond pearls".  I want to have Christ's quality of iridescence about me-His light shining through me!