Proverbs 5-8

One thing that struck me in reading the Proverbs today was the address: “My child.” Of course, this is a reminder that Solomon is addressing his son. If the son was Rehoboam, we know from Kings what a mess he made of his life and how little he implemented the wisdom of his father.

By the end of our reading, in Proverbs 8, the address “my children” refers to the children of wisdom. This raises the question: “Are we the children of wisdom?” Furthermore, if we are, “Do we listen to our parent?”

However, that is not what I found striking about the address, “My child”. I found it comforting, receiving these Proverbs as a personal message to me. To be addressed again as a “child” was soothing. To be an adult is to have responsibilities, sometimes too many. Sometimes the weight of adulthood is crushing for many of us. Thus, it is good to have a place where we can come and be children again, a place where we can receive (children are primarily receptors) from our heavenly parent. This address (“My child”) reminds me that I need to crawl up into the lap of my heavenly Father on a regular basis and remember that I am his child and that he will provide for me all the wisdom and all of everything else that I need.

Thus, it is perhaps good for us to begin our reading of Scripture, not only the Proverbs, every day by saying, “Father, here I am once again. Speak to me the words of wisdom I need to hear. Help me to take those words to heart, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, apply them in my life.”

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Will Vaus

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