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Proverbs 11:16 · World English Bible

Proverbs 11:16 Meaning A Gracious Woman Obtains Honor

A gracious woman obtains honor, but violent men obtain riches.

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What does Proverbs 11:16 mean?

Grace and strength are two movements of one mind, and each keeps what belongs to it. The gentle receptivity that welcomes love holds honor, because honor was never earned by force but simply accepted.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 11:16 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

Grace and strength are two movements of one mind, and each keeps what belongs to it. The gentle receptivity that welcomes love holds honor, because honor was never earned by force but simply accepted. The strength that stands firm keeps its riches, the settled treasure of a mind no longer at war with itself. Both are ways of holding without grasping, of letting what is true remain because nothing in the mind is fighting to expel it.

To retain here is to keep by resting in what one already is. A mind holds its worth by ceasing to attack it.

Gracious woman: the receptive part of the mind that welcomes love, the openness through which honor is quietly kept Strong men: the steadfast part of the mind that stands firm, the settled strength that holds its inner treasure

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 11:16 today

  1. Receive one compliment today without deflecting it, without a joke, and without earning it back. Just let it land and say thank you.
  2. In a conversation with someone you want approval from, stay as you are rather than performing. Let them meet the real version.
  3. When a meeting or a message starts to shake your sense of your own worth, breathe and stay where you are. You do not have to defend what is already yours.

What good thing in me am I still trying to earn instead of simply keeping?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching 22

Yield and you remain whole. What bends is kept, and what grasps hardest is what breaks first.

Bhagavad Gita 2

Act without clutching at the fruit. What is truly yours stays with you when you stop clenching around it.

Zen

The open hand holds the bird. Close it and you have either crushed the bird or lost it.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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