Sunday Ponderings ~ Where I Want To Go

After listening to our pastor's sermon this morning, I've been pondering this afternoon on what may well be the most important statement from the book of Proverbs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (9:10).

I think wisdom is something we're all after. It's what Eve went after in the Garden of Eden. Satan convinced her that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was going to make her wise. Now, wisdom is a good thing to have. It helps us make our way through life less haphazardly. So Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. She soon learned, however, that was definitely not a wise thing to do. The price of the fruit was more than she expected to pay.

Eve listened to the wrong voice, and we often do the same. Heeding any voice that contradicts God's Word, as Eve did, can sometimes sound and feel right and good, but it too often takes us where we do not intend to go. Add our own voice to the voices outside of us, and life can become rather confusing. I want wisdom, and I'm pretty sure that you do as well, but we need true, godly wisdom, not the wisdom the world or what Satan offers to us. I've seen the consequences Eve paid, and I don't want to go there. I've learned from some of my own consequences as well.

How do we know what true wisdom is? Where do we begin to gain this kind of wisdom? We first have to look at a foundational truth, and that is the statement in Proverbs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." If we have no fear of God, no understanding of His holiness and what He requires of us, then we are stuck in the muck and mire of our careless, foolish ways. And life will be one poor decision after another, consequence upon consequence, until we are so totally confused that life itself seems to be a ricochet from one disappointing or even disastrous decision or relationship to another.

That's why the world's wisdom doesn't work for us. There is no fear of God, no understanding of His holiness in it. If we want more wisdom, we must know more about God, for that is where it all begins. Knowing God teaches us the whys and wherefores of daily living, because He created us and knows how to best live this life. Knowing God teaches us about the blessings and consequences of our decisions and patterns of living.

The fear of the Lord, resulting from the knowledge of His holiness, is the beginning of true wisdom. Which takes me where I truly do want to go.

Image ~ Posing With Posies, Wilhelm Menzler, 1846-1926 

public domain, via Tumblr

Training Children to Love One Another

For the past couple of weeks in our Sunday School class, we had been talking about principles of parenting from the book of Proverbs and pulling a few points out of the book Wise Parenting Principles by Chris Cutshall. He has 40 principles, but we discussed only ten of them. One of those principles was 'Wise parents train their children to love one another.' 

God established the family as the foundational community for teaching and training, as we know from Deuteronomy 4:6-7--And these words, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 
  
Learning to love and care about one another in the home is the training ground for all of the "one anothers" that we find in the Scriptures. But since we were working from the book of Proverbs, let me list just a few of the verses I found there that can help our children learn to love one another in our homes.

· We stand by one another when times get tough.
Proverbs 17:17—A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

· We do good to one another.

Proverbs 3:27—Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

· We do not pick on each other or bicker with one another.

Proverbs 3:29-30—Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm. Do not devise harm against your neighbor, while he lives insecurity beside you.

· We do not tattle on one another just to cause trouble.

Proverbs 24:28—Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

· We are honorable and do not quarrel.
Proverbs 20:3—Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.

· We do not tease or trick or deceive one another and call it joking. 
Proverbs 26:18-19—Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, “I am only joking.”

· We are kind and truthful to one another. 
Proverbs 3:3—Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck; Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Too often children grow up not liking or loving one another. Much is lost when that is true. A book I would recommend is Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by the Mally siblings. I posted about it here, if you'd like to read a little about it. The siblings, ages 22, 17, and 12 wrote how each of them viewed different situations and how they came to appreciate each other's perspectives.
 
The Proverbs are wonderful for teaching wisdom principles to our children. Another book I'd recommend is Proverbs for Parenting: A Topical Guide for Child Raising from the Book of Proverbs by Barbara Decker. She organizes many of the Proverbs into categories that can be used for memory work or referencing as we train our children and grandchildren. The book is currently out of print but can be found from used book dealers.

Painting ~ A Critical Moment, Harry Brooker 1848-1940

Wikimedia Commons public domain

Thankful Thursday ~ For Biblical Authors

I'm thankful for people that God has gifted with an understanding of His Word and how to bring it to bear with the issues of life. I'm thankful for their ability to write with a gospel orientation as they share their insights and knowledge through the written word.

I've been doing some reading about parenting and wishing we had some of these books when our own children were growing up.  But it's never too late to learn good principles about training children and touching their hearts for eternity, to be a positive influence on  grandchildren and an encouragement to them in their faith.

One of the books I'm reading is Wise Parenting Principles From Proverbs by Chris Cutshall. The author categorizes the Proverbs into 40 principles for training children.

Wise Parenting Principles 1-5 ~ A Teachable Spirit
Wise Parenting Principles 6-10 ~ The Way of Wisdom
Wise Parenting Principles 11-15 ~ Arrows in the Hand
Wise Parenting Principles 16-20 ~ Strong Parent Leaders
Wise Parenting Principles 21-25 ~ The Small Window of Opportunity
Wise Parenting Principles 26-30 ~ The Treasure That You Seek
Wise Parenting Principles 31-35 ~ Stay on Mission
Wise Parenting Principles 36-40 ~ No Regrets

 Going to pass this book along to my daughter when I'm finished.