Thoughts About Leadership: What You Think About Matters

Proverbs 5: 6 (NKJV) Lest you ponder her [a sexually promiscuous woman] path of life-- Her ways are unstable; You do not know them.

(NASB) She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.
Jeremiah 2:36 (NIV) Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.
Eph 4:14 (NLT) Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.
James 1:6-8 (NIV) But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Wisdom, in this chapter, is urging us to avoid sexual and emotional satisfaction outside of marriage and that is the simplest and most direct meaning.

The book of Proverbs has also pictured both Wisdom and Foolishness metaphorically as women, both calling for our attention. Wisdom personified as being with God before creation offers instruction that will result in eternal life. Foolishness, personified as an adulteress, seduces to distract us from choosing eternal life with our Creator. Distractions like: present pleasure; ego engagement; or just sweet, seductive thinking.

Note that two renderings above: the NKJV points the reader to the one being seduced. The NASB points the reader to the seducer. In either case, instability is the issue. The way of the wicked - the Foolish - might look good, but the ground underneath is unstable. This foolish path of life -going for greener on the other side - does not produced what looks promised. Wisdom recognizes that life happens and it is our reaction to life, our response to what happens that concerns God. The dark shadows of life are simply something getting between the light source and us. Our focus must be on the light source - not what is blocking it. Humans want, in their flesh, to ponder alternatives (the sin of Adam and Eve - we suffer from their eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) and like them, we look for a "better way."

The warning here is to remember that the Evil One can make alternative paths look good, but he is the great counterfeiter. Jeremiah warned Israel that the grass was not greener on the world's side - and that only disappointment would result for going "over the fence." We must be disciplined to attend the school of Wisdom (in the Word, with people of the Word, in prayer with the Giver of the Word) or the Evil One will seduce us with a "lie [that] sounds like the truth."

The metaphor that James develops points to the results from pondering perilous paths. There's the real danger! Instability follows. In everything. Not just religious stuff. Everything. Business strategy. Business plan implementation. Operations. Sales Leadership. Managing. Dating. Marriage relationships. Parenting. Everything.

Make the Sunday stuff impact the Monday stuff and you will see lives changed and your business thrive.