Title: I Know What I'm Talking About/Topic: Parental Wisdom

Today’s Reading: Proverbs 4; Proverbs 5; Proverbs 6; Romans 8

Scripture: Proverbs 4:20-23
20 My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Observation: Here is a father telling his son, “Hey, I know what I'm talking about. Listen up! I have your best interest at heart and if you pay attention to what I say you will have a great life!”. This father ends with the admonition to “guard your heart”. Lusts of all kinds can ruin a person's life. Lust for things, but even more, lust involving romantic entanglements with others of loose morals sexually. This father, especially, should know; he himself was brought to ruin by his own sexual lust for women who did not serve God. So listening to a father's advice is important even if the father hasn't lived perfectly in congruence with his own words of wisdom.

Application: A wise son or daughter will live a blessed life if they listen to the instructions of their parents. The wisdom of parents is “life and health” to their children. I need to choose to be a person who receives and clings to the wisdom I am taught and also be one who passes that along to my children. I cannot make them choose to listen and heed my wisdom; that is their responsibility, but I must speak it to them so that they have the best chance for a happy and productive life.

Prayer: Father, I pray that the words of wisdom that I have spoken to my children will be heeded. Where they have not been, I pray you would bring them to their senses and help them get on the right track again. Do what you need to do to humble them so that they will listen and do the same for me. I want to be teachable and increase my wisdom until the day I die.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.