Listen Up, Mothers!

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. (Proverbs 31:10, 27-28)

               Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and as usual, I got to the actual day before remembering that I should say something about the holiday. That’s OK because no doubt mothers in churches across the land will be informed about how they should behave. Maybe that’s changed, but it was the case for long enough in my life that it’s what I associate with church on Mother’s Day… mothers being browbeaten. This isn’t the only celebration used to lecture the celebrants. Father’s Day was used to either lecture fathers, or to lecture children about being better children. Naturalization court is used by many to lecture people who have just completed the training necessary to become citizens about how to be good citizens. 
                But, getting back to today’s passage. For many people – including me – Proverbs 31:10-31 tends to be just another in the long line of passages that tell women all about how they need to do so much more. Recently, someone pointed out the obvious.  If you back up to verses 1 and 2, you’ll find that the chapter is part of what Lemuel (AKA Solomon)’s mother taught him about a good wife. The instruction, then, is as much for husbands as it is for wives. Maybe more so. And it is for children as much as for mothers. Maybe more so. 
                She tells him that while he’s sitting in the gate or palace, conducting his manly business, his wife is at home, seeing to the household, handling the family business as if it were hers alone, being charitable, and doing lots of things that make him look good. And, she adds, as a husband, and as a child, it was his duty to praise her in public because she does all these things. And he was to teach his children to praise her in public as well because she does all these things. 
                Yes, that requires that she step up to the plate, but on this day after Mother’s Day, let me suggest that a husband who brags on what a wonder woman his wife is will likely have a wife who at least becomes worthy of his praise.  So, to all you mothers out there, and to all the mother wanna-bes, and all the good wives. I applaud you.