Greetings,

I try my best to read a proverb and a psalm a day. So once per month, on the last day of the month, I read Proverbs 31. I am sure that you have probably heard about the Proverbs 31 woman, how she is the epitome of what all godly women should strive after. This woman is virtuous, strong, loving and sincere, she gets up early and goes to bed late; her children call her blessed. 

I imagine the Proverbs 31 woman makes women everywhere feel like they must rise to her level of womanhood. I imagine some women may look at her and be motivated to rise up to the challenge of being like her. I have heard a rumor that most women end up feeling like a failure next to her, and I can imagine there are some feelings of animosity and frustration toward this superhuman woman. 

At the end of April, I was reading it again when it struck me that Proverbs 31 is not written to a woman, but a man. It is not the Lord declaring that women should all be plowing fields and cooking dinners from foreign lands. Proverbs 31 is motherly advice to her son, the king Lemuel. Lemuel’s mother wanted him to be careful to pick a virtuous woman because the wrong choice could ruin his kingdom. She wanted her son to be mindful of what a king's wife should be able to do. Also, the king's wife is a position of leadership. She would be the CEO of the king's home. She would have servants and workers at her disposal to get the many things in this mother’s ideal list done. 

This aspiration is good to look at and examine, but remember that this is a mother’s desire for her son. And we all know how realistic a mother-in-law’s expectations of her soon to be daughter-in-law can be. To measure yourself up to this as a mother and wife is to measure yourself next to a king’s mother’s expectations of a queen of a kingdom. 

It should be every mother and father’s desire that their children marry a person that is strong, dependable, faithful and wise. We should help our kids to know what they should be looking for in a mate. We should also be praying for our children’s spouse before they are ever ready to think about this commitment. 

As parents we should be raising our boys to not expect their wives to live to the standard of Proverbs 31 unless they are going to live up to the expectations of a king. We men shouldn’t expect our wives to be virtuous women all on their own. We should be striving to lead in virtuous character as godly men. 

I love what Boaz says when talking to Ruth, in Ruth 3:11. "And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character." He is saying that he will bring her security and will do all that she asks of him and that all the people know that she is a virtuous woman. How will they know? Because he will make it known. 

Whether you are a wife, husband, mother, father, daughter, or son, I hope that you desire to be a person of virtuous character and lead others to do the same. 

Love ya,