The Missed Marketing Opportunity in Proverbs 31

I love reading the Bible because just when you are patting yourself on the back, thinking that you know a passage or scripture inside out...POW!!! Something new and fresh comes right at you.

Upon reading this scripture again I realized, from my Communications/Marketing point of view that authors and spiritual speakers have been packaging and peddling this passage to the wrong audience -young single women. There are some men who won't even read this blog post because Proverbs 31 is in the title and because they automatically assume I'm directing this post to women. There are some men's ministries that would never even consider a group study on Proverbs 31 because they'll automatically think...that's for women. And they have good reason to think that because it's all in the marketing. Don't believe me? Take a visit to your bookstore and look at the packaging of anything that says Proverbs 31, visit websites like this then read Proverbs 31 for yourself and tell me what you think.

Proverbs 31 starts by saying that it is King Lemuel's account of wisdom his mother gave him.

In essence, recorded in Proverbs 31 is a mother's advice to her son. How then did people start taking this advice and targeting it to women? No doubt there is much a woman can learn, as a secondary audience, from reading about this mother's description of a good woman but we completely miss the primary focus.

Pretty much this mother is saying to her son,"Son, time to grow up, be a man and be a leader." Below I've summarized her 'Be a man. Be a leader' speech into a three point sermon:

1. Don't be drunk and careless like those other fellows. Leaders need to be focused and have their head straight.

2. Be a defender. Don't deny people of their due justice. Take care of the those who can't help themselves like the dumb, defenseless and the oppressed.

3. Finally, a good and sensible man, a leader, must find a good woman, not just a pretty little thing who looks cute and talks a good game. And son, in case you don't know who a good woman is let me tell you...(describes herself) oh mothers :).

So much of who a man becomes he learns from his mother, how she treated him growing up, how she handled herself in the family dynamics and even how she relates to him as a grown man. Sadly, many women over the ages have been single parenting and it's hard. Most times it is also a lot of drama with the father's not being involved physically and financially. Parenting...full stop is hard. So somewhere along the line the essence of what makes a leader-man,and the basic marks of manhood, gets lost. 

It's all well and good for young women to prepare and promote themselves as Proverbs 31 women but if a man does not know what being a leader-man entails, does not know what a good woman looks like, and does not understand why finding a good woman is important, then there is a disconnect. 

I love Proverbs 31 because it is jam-packed with so much godly wisdom and is a picture of a healthy mother/son relationship. These days many mothers want to keep their sons as little boys forever, because of fear of loneliness, financial security  or other self-driven reasons. But here we see a wise and confident mother grooming her son for leadership and successful manhood.

Let's start targeting Proverbs 31 to the primary target audience. And let's pray that men, regardless of their family dynamics and background get the courage to be good leaders and men of integrity in their families and in society.