Year 2, Day 295: Proverbs 4

Gender Reality

As I began to read this chapter, I began to read the words through a potentially sexist lens.  Why is all the talk about fathers and sons?  What about mothers and daughters?

Then suddenly it hit me just how much living in a modern context with a modern lens was affecting me.  The talk is about fathers and sons not to the exclusion of mothers and daughter at all!  This is a man writing!  He only knows what it is like to be a son and to be a father.  He can’t speak to being a mother or a daughter.  So why I am concerned about it?

That led me to what I think is a very healthy place of thought about this proverb.  The neat thing is that I also know I get to preach to the choir for a second.  Preaching to the choir is always fun!  So here’s my thought as we open this chapter in Proverbs.

Do you notice the importance of the inclusion of the father in the development of the children?  So often in the world fathers consider themselves the “bread-winner,” the “handyman,” or even the “chauffer.”  It is easy for the father to assume that the mother always knows more about rearing kids than they do.  So fathers often step back and take a less active role in the rearing of their children.  It’s completely understandable from a psychological standpoint.

But from a spiritual standpoint nothing could be worse!  This person writing this proverb (assumed to be Solomon) is who he is because when he was young his dad took him aside and spent time with him.  His dad taught him right from wrong.  His dad taught him obedience.  His dad took time and taught him just how important he is in life.  I don’t mean this to minimize the importance of mothers at all.  But I cannot stress how much the opening of this proverb has shown me the importance of reinforcing the father and his role as well.  Today I am going to spend a good deal of time remembering and honoring my father’s role in my life and praying for all the fathers I know.

Gaining Wisdom

As we progress through this chapter, I think there is another theme that can really speak to our current age.  Notice the emphasis that the author puts on valuing and gaining wisdom.  There are only two ways that I know of for gaining wisdom.  One is experience.  You can only gain experiential wisdom based on the experiences you have.  However, you can also learn wisdom by being around other people who are wise.  I think this is the path that the author is speaking about.  The author is encouraging us to value our time sitting and learning.

This made me think about the culture in which I find myself.  What is this culture known for?  What are the younger people in our culture skilled at doing?  How many of our young people can play video games in ways that older people have no hope of doing?  What about young adults?  How much of our culture is based on the mobility of our young adults and running people to this event or that? 

I could go on with a few other examples, but I hope that I have made my point.  Our culture has gotten good at diverting our attention away from learning – or at least learning wisdom.  We are far more “busy” than any culture that has come before us.  I’m not really sure we’re actually any more productive – just busy.  We also are far more into learning things that don’t particularly make us wise.  We are consumers of skills.  We are always learning new skills.  But are we actively learning things that make us better people?  Sure, we may be more versatile than any generation that has come before us.  But are we any better?

Witness

As I close my reflections on this chapter, I am struck by the analogy that the author makes about the way of the righteous being like the sun.  It shines brighter and brighter until the full day (what we would call noon).  That’s a really neat analogy in my opinion.  It is an analogy that simultaneously promotes a public witness while also embracing the idea that one’s witness must grow.  We aren’t born with a strong witness for God.  We aren’t born with an innate wisdom.  We are born with the capacity for those things to grow.

I think that I am really going to hold onto that analogy.  In fact, let me state a few facts.  Sunrise for today was at 7:15 and I am currently 37 years old.  Therefore, to apply that analogy to my life (using noon as the point of death – the point when growth has hopefully been maximized) … I am currently only at about 9:00 A.M.  If I’m only at 9:00 AM … think about how much more growth I can accomplish before the Noon Hour of my life!  That’s a really neat way of reinforcing the idea that I “haven’t arrived” yet.  You “haven’t arrived” yet, either.  We all still have time left to grow in the Lord and increase our wisdom in Him.

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