Preceptress

My grandma Rena (the preceptress) and grandpa Enos on their wedding dayPsalm 119:27, 45 Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. . . . I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.

My mother's mother was described to me many times as I grew as having once been a "preceptress" in Michigan before she married in her thirties--considered in the 1920's to be terribly late in life for a woman to marry.

I did some sleuthing around on the internet and found out that "preceptress" is generally defined as "A woman who is the principal of a school; a female teacher." As I recall there's one other definition that I've heard, and that's a woman who used to serve as the "house mother" of young ladies in a boarding school dorm. My grandmother may have done both. I do know for sure that she was a teacher (now she would have been termed a "professor") of Home Economics, with her particular interest being in cooking and nutrition. Whichever gene sparked the interest in teaching, reached me. Whichever gene drew her to cooking and nutrition as a passion, has never surfaced in my particular gene pool.

Hannah Webster Foster wrote a book printed in Boston in 1798 that must have been wildly popular, entitled The Boarding School; Or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils: Consisting of Information, Instruction and Advice, Calculated to Improve the Manners, and Form the Character of Young Ladies. It went into fifteen editions. Fifteen! A bestseller, to say the least.
The word "preceptor" is not dead and gone. Stepdaughter #2 used to tell me about her preceptor, the hospital nurse who mentored her in her nursing school practica in northern California. A good preceptor would guide her, but would involve her in the decision-making and care for the patient. Much like the preceptress of Hannah Webster Foster's book, Stepdaughter #2's best preceptors would give her information, instruction and advice, calculated to improve her skills and form her character as a nurse.

A "precept" is a "command or principle intended especially as a general rule of action," according to Merriam-Webster online. In other words, precepts are meant to guide behavior. Precepts shape the character, particularly if one chooses to live by them. A life lived by precepts is deliberate, focused, and--in my opinion--more likely to be successful.

Around me there are some who live according to precept, deliberately choosing their actions according to solid, enduring principles. And then there are others whose lives tend to drift, whose integrity drifts along with their life, and who are letting year after year pass without being meaningful. It hurts just to watch and reflect on their behaviors.

In the texts referred to above, I particularly like the one in which the psalmist sings, "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts." I have rolled this around in my mind with some delight, for several reasons. First of all, a walkabout in Australian lingo means travel. Anyone who knows me knows that I love traveling fairly frequently, so going on a "walkabout," even if the psalmist didn't mean that, catches my attention.

More seriously, I have enjoyed reflecting on this verse because it's so paradoxical and full of truth. Some people see the believer's life as limiting. What a paradox that living by God's precepts would set you free! But they do. When anyone chooses to live by good solid principles, whether religious or not, it's going to be a walkabout of freedom. You're no longer pulled and tugged by the winds of people's wants and approval. You're free of those limiting social factors because you've already committed to the principles that make decision-making easy.

So really, it seems to me that a "joyful woman" will be, as such, a woman who lives by precepts. She has sought them out, understood them, and chosen which ones will be a guide for her life. And then, because women quite naturally do this, she will mentor the next generation into the freedom of living by godly principles. And that's what makes it a very honorable thing to be a preceptress.