Ladies Like us: Abigail

David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgement and for keeping me from bloodshed this day."

1 Samuel 25:32-33

Now let me tell you guys, this girl Abigail was one smart cookie. She was a quick thinker.Except, she was married to an idiot.(We have to be careful about those angsty boys :))Abigail's husband, Nabal, foolishly treated David badly. And nobody ever got away with that!!! David and baout four hundred of his men grabbed their swords and set out to kill every male with any relation to Nabal. Fortunately, Abigail intercepted them before they arrived.

Abigail found herself caught between two men- one hot-headed soldier and one proud fool. The situation needed diplomacy and quick thinking. Abigail manged to keep the soldier from doing something he'd regret later and the fool from getting the beating he deserved.

Abigail offered David and his men food and gifts, asked for mercy and even accepted the blame for Nabal's stupidity. What a lady! And what a hard life she must have had living with such a husband. When David saw Abigail's humility and wisdom, he praised her for keeping him from getting revenge and needlessly shedding blood.

Some people might tell us to use our intelligence to manipulate people, make lots of money or get everything we want for ourselves. Others say it's nerdy to be smart. Yet God fives the tool of intelligence for more than just getting A's in calculus and writing good book reports. He intends for us to use our gifts to glorify him. Having trouble with your friends, use your brain, not your brawn, to come up with a solution. Concerned about unfairness in your community? Worried about world issues? Put your mind to it- God may use you to make the world a better place. It would be so easy for us to use our sharp minds to cause problems for others or to brag about ourselves. But if we humble ourselves like Abigail, we can glorify God by finding wise solutions to problems we face.

Courtesy of Mirror Images, Zondervan

So when I pray today, I'm going to thank God for giving me and you a sharp mind. I'll pray  that we will be able to glorify Him, and not ourselves, I'm not gonna lie, I do get caught up in myself a lot! But I pray that God will grant us some of Abigail's wisdom and good judgement.

To read more about Abigail go to 1 Samuel 25

Did you know there is an Anna in the Bible? We will look at her next week! 

PS: Seniors, I know things are starting to get stressful nowadays (did you know that is an actual word? Cool huh?!?) But hang in there, if you need any help let me know :)