(^) 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction ... ”
(^) 17:19 “ ... he who builds a high gate invites destruction.”
(^) 19:15 “ ... the shiftless man goes hungry.”
(^) This is only a suggestive list of warnings from Proverbs.
(^) One of the most powerful ways we can warn our children is to fill
their heads with the cautions of the Bible.
(^) How do the warnings work? A warning is simply a statement that
A leads to B. For example, laziness leads to slavery. The person who
is lazy will end up in some form of servitude. The warning is an
application of the sowing and reaping principle that we find operative
throughout Scripture. Warning your children is not a matter of yelling
some pithy saying at them when they are leaving the house to go
somewhere. It is acquainting them with the sowing-and-reaping
principle found throughout Scripture. It is spending time helping
them understand the many A-leads-to-B statements of Scripture.
(^) Eventually, they will begin to understand and embrace these
things. Once your children begin to internalize such truths, their
attitudes and behaviors are powerfully influenced.
(^) Our daughter’s early school years were spent homeschooling and
in a small Christian school, but she later attended a public high
school. When we dropped her off at the school for the first day we had
a lump in our throats. As we watched her pass through the doors into
this large school, we knew that she would feel alone.
(^) As the days went by, it was the warnings and encouragements of
the Proverbs that enabled her to form good friendships. The Proverbs
warn (14:7) about fools and instruct us to stay away from them. They
also identify a fool. A fool shows his annoyance at once (12:16).
Whoever spreads slander is a fool (10:18). These and many other
warnings gave her the basis for wise discrimination in forming
friendships. Though she had never been in a large school, the
Scriptures prepared her for making wise choices.
barré
(Barré)
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