Tiny Devotional for Saturday, 07-10-2021

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Men’s Group for breakfast.

The proverbs of Solomon.
A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.
Proverbs 10:1, NASB


By my non-scholarly understanding, the Book of Proverbs is divided up into three sections: Chapters 1-9 discuss the practical goodness of Wisdom; Chapters 10-29 are a collections of Solomon’s wise sayings; Chapters 30 & 31 are self-attributed to someone other than Solomon. Therefore, this verse is the FIRST verse of the second section. 

I’ve been rolling this verse around in my head for a bit, and wondering if it is giving us special information about differences between fathers and mothers. Does it takes specific action to make a father glad, and specific action to grieve a mother? From that, can we extrapolate to saying that fathers are hard to please, and mothers hard to disappoint?

I’m sure someone has written a book about this, and that it’s formed the basis for a series on child-rearing. However, I think that the entire premise fails, because it’s just not given support from this verse.

Although the topic of the Book of Proverbs is wisdom, the language is poetic;  you will find a LOT of ‘on one hand, on the other hand’ in it. It points to truth by using contrasts, but that doesn’t mean that these are exclusive conditions. Fathers and mothers are more than one thing, and what makes one of them glad or sad is likely to have the same impact on the other. 

I think this is the message: our choices affect others.  So, choose wisely, sons and daughters.

Peace be on your household.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny Devotional for Wednesday, 06-21-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the Fairmount Pattersons are Papa-sitting this morning! It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:9, NASB Today is the 21st of the month; so, Proverbs 21. I have written about verses 1-8;  it’s verse 9’s turn. Thus, my selection of this verse has NOTHING to do with my wife, mother, sisters, or daughters! All of them are intelligent, confident, and assertive; they are NOT contentious. ‘Contentious’ does NOT mean ‘has a different opinion’!  A man who has lived with a contentious woman gives the definition by example: I was 20 years old, and stupid (those might be the same thing).  I thought our marriage would work because she was beautiful, and I was, too. It didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong about that. Most of the time, it didn’t matter what I did; I couldn’t please her. We were married for 3 years,
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-20-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Piper doesn’t like her food. Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10, NASB If this verse weren’t so important, I’d skip it, because I discovered it in a painful time. Others were involved, and their stories are not mine to tell. So, you get a parable: Stockman Bubba ran a cattle station, in partnership with his horse, Nancy. They worked hard together, and although they were not rich, they had achieved a degree of success. One day, a platypus stung Bubba, incapacitating him. Bubba tried to continue running the station, but after two years had passed, he realized it was time to retire. Nancy couldn’t adjust to this, and she left for life on her own. Three years later, Bubba realized Nancy was never coming back, and considered getting another horse. However, he was concerned that the other station owners would think bad
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 07-23-2023

Image
 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, reach for the sky. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:17-18, NASB Today’s verse is 18, but I included 17, because I THINK they are a couplet. I wrote about verse 17 last month, and will try not to repeat myself. Our senses describe the present, our memory describes the past; the future is described by our hopes and our fears. In this little verse, we are given one of the strongest foundations for peace: yes, you DO have a future, and it’s a good one. Under most circumstances, we take the future for granted. If you have ever been forced to doubt that a future exists, you know how chilling that is. ‘No future’ is MUCH worse than ‘bad future.’ This verse draws us back away from the abyss of nothingness, and back into reality: yes, you DO have a future.  (If that
Read more