Our text for today is Proverbs 1: verse 8
“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.”
Mark Twain once said, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years,”
I think of the book of Proverbs as though a wise man is coming to the end of his life, and he writes down wise words to guide his kids.
Out of the 3,000 proverbs Solomon knew, the first one he listed was the one we read today: “Listen to your mother and father.”
I have asked many people, “What saying do you use that starts with ‘My mother always said,’ or ‘My daddy used to say.’”
My own grandad used to say, “Don’t take no wooden nickels.”
One lady told me, “My daddy always said, ‘Don’t ever take advice from anyone who has nothing to lose in giving it.’”
As wise words go, these are good, but what if we had a list of wise words from the wisest man who ever lived? We do! It is called the book of Proverbs.
Here is a great plan: There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Why not read the whole book through in a month—a chapter a day? Then next month, do it again.
If you use this plan for one year, you will become a wiser person.
You will find yourself quoting Solomon.
You will be blessed.
I’m Lonnie Davis
And these are thoughts worth thinking.