Listen, Children!

This is Proverbs 4:1-4 from the NET Bible

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.
Because I give you good instruction,
do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son to my father,
a tender only child before my mother,
he taught me, and he said to me:
“Let your heart lay hold of my words;
keep my commands so that you will live.

This is a smaller bite of Proverbs than we’ve been taking. What do we find?

1. What happened in the text?
2. What do I learn about God?
3. What should I do about it?

1. What happened in the text?
   The writer commends listening to parental instruction.
2. What do I learn about God?
   He can use families to propagate useful information.
   He uses what’s written in our hearts to shape our lives.
3. What should I do about it?
   It came up this evening in the course of getting the kids ready for bed that some very basic hygiene issues have to be reinforced with little kids. And while I’m a little twitchy that I had to explain what I explained this evening, I’m also glad to have gotten the chance to realize there was a problem and be able to explain the solution.
   But there’s more advanced stuff than that. For example, my parents taught me to turn the other cheek, and when I (literally) did that once, I got that one slapped, too. The flip side of that, though, is that I have been able to defuse a problem a few times because I wanted peace, and that was a value they taught.
   Something I was slow to learn is that what you become more of when you’re in a romantic relationship is a reflection of that relationship, and probably of the person. I hope to be able to pass along the basic concept that when somebody you’re not married to makes you *worse*, it’s time to get out of the relationship. (When that’s the case in a marriage, it’s my opinion that it’s time to get to a solid counselor.)
   I also really like the idea in the last sentence: The advice absorbed by the heart causes us to act differently, which will impact our quality of life as well. What am I absorbing?