Matthew Henry’s commentary on Proverbs 14:1 reads,
A good wife is a great blessing to a family. By a fruitful wife a family is multiplied and replenished with children, and so built up. But by a prudent wife, one that is pious, industrious, and considerate, the affairs of the family are made to prosper, debts are paid, portions raised, provision made, the children well educated and maintained, and the family has comfort within doors and credit without; thus is the house built. She looks upon it as her own to take care of, though she knows it is her husband’s to bear rule in, Esth. 1:22. 2. Many a family is brought to ruin by ill housewifery, as well as by ill husbandry. A foolish woman, that has no fear of God nor regard to her business, that is wilful, and wasteful, and humoursome, that indulges her ease and appetite, and is all for jaunting and feasting, cards and the play-house, though she come to a plentiful estate, and to a family beforehand, she will impoverish and waste it, and will as certainly be the ruin of her house as if she plucked it down with her hands; and the husband himself, with all his care, can scarcely prevent it.

When I read Proverbs 14:1 this afternoon, it got me to thinking about the passage in Matthew 7 about the wise man who built his house on the rock, versus the foolish man who built it on the sand. In looking up that passage, I came across the similar, though less well-known, passage in Luke.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:46-49

The wise man builds his house on the firm foundation of the rock, obeying God’s Word, so when the storms of life come, his house stands. The foolish man builds his house on the sand. He does not trouble himself to dig down to the solid foundation. He cannot be troubled to obey God’s words. When the storms of life come, his house falls.

Yet, consider this, the foolish woman of Proverbs 14:1 is tearing down her OWN house with her OWN hands. She doesn’t need any storms to tear it down! She is tearing it down herself. She, also, is doing that by hearing these words of Jesus and DOING them.

I pray that as I go in and out today that I will spend my days building my house, not tearing it down.