Do you remember yesteryear when the burly man whipped out his pocket knife and sliced off a sliver of soap? I remember this commercial vividly, but for the life of me, I had no idea why he did it! All I knew was that I wanted to slice up my soap too—a fact that I’m sure my mother did not appreciate.

Come to find out, the reason the model cut a sliver off the Irish Spring soap was to show that the ‘double deodorant’ was not just a layer but that it went all the way through. Hmm… Isn’t it amazing to think back 30 to 40 years at the things that intrigued consumers!?!

When Colgate was first advertising their product, they weren’t selling soap—they were selling the idea of being a manly man! A man that ‘worked so hard and smelled so bad that he needed two deodorants.’ As a six year old boy, I wanted to be that kind of man!

I still want to be a ‘manly’ man today! But what does that mean?

Is a real man what I see on TV or in the movie? Or is there another standard by which I need to measure my manhood? The Bible has a lot to say about what it means to be a real man—and none of it has to do with using Irish Spring soap! Notice the way that 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 reads in the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It says:

“Be alert, stand firm in the faith, act like a man, be strong. Your every action must be done with love.”

Be alert! Stand firm! Act like a man! Paul almost sounds like some of my former football coaches here! I had some great coaches, but not one of them ever told me that my ‘every action must be done with love!’ That’s not what the world teaches us about being a man, but it is what the Bible teaches about becoming a real, biblical man.

So how can I ‘act like a man’?

Well, ironically, I believe that in order for us to become the biblical men that God intends, we need SOAP! We don’t need Irish Spring soap, but the spiritual discipline of SOAPing. Speaking from my personal experience, the process of SOAP journaling has impacted my spiritual development more than any other method that I have ever tried. SOAP journaling opens my mind to the Holy Spirit of God and allows His Word to speak into my life every day.

Would you like to know more about this transformational tool and how to use it? Click here to learn more.

And by the way, “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”