Personal Transformation Opportunities: The Key to Life

Proverbs 4 Speaks To Today

A Bold Claim

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My child, listen to me and do as I say,

and you will have a long, good life.11

I will teach you wisdom’s ways
and lead you in straight paths.

When you walk, you won’t be held back;

when you run, you won’t stumble.

13
Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go.

Guard them, for they are the key to life.

Proverbs 4:10-13 New Living Translation

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DO AS I SAY!!

With the ascendance of psychology and its claim of parental failure as the root of most of life's negative actions, parents are taught to believe they cannot prevent causing a dysfunction in their children's adult lives.

So edited for modern Christian parenting's belief system these verses would read:

"Listen to me and do what I say! "

Yes, that is exactly where too much parenting stops.

Who would dare say, "If you do, you will have a long good life"? Change comes too fast to guarantee a child or teen that. Right? Besides you might be wrong.

Add to that the Lord's claim that teaching "do this" and "do that" leads to stumbling, falling backward, and being destroyed (see Isa. 28:13 NIV) and modern Christian parenting dares not say, "If you do, you will have a long good life," unless they don't mind lying to their children and fulfilling the prophecy of psychology that parental failure is the cause of most dysfunctions in their adult children's lives.

And if the parent adds, "Do as I say, not as I do," well it doesn't take a psychologist to recognize what will happen.

NOTE: I am not anti-psychology. I trained in psychology and in counseling. There is much we can learn about the order of God's creation in man from these sciences, imprecise as they are.

I WILL TEACH YOU WISDOM'S WAYS.

Aw... Now here is the missing piece. Here is the only basis of saying, "Listen to me and do as I say and you will have a long, good life."

But I need to remind you, and myself, that there are two kinds of wisdom, the wisdom that comes from human thoughts (a created but fallen part of human creation) and wisdom that comes from above (which scripture says is freely given to believers).

Let me remind you it is the wisdom that comes from above, not the do's and don'ts, that leads a child, and we adults, in straight paths. Nothing else can. There is no set of rules that can duplicate the life lead by wisdom from God.

But, of course, we will not teach that wisdom if we ourselves do not follow it, do not even know what it is. We will not teach God's wisdom if we do not trust it (we prefer the Old Law). This lack of trust is what leads to so many semi-believers remaining forever babies who need milk and are unable to digest words of wisdom. It is this lack of trust that leads us to teach the do's and don'ts and other false wisdom.

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Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

What does a wise parent teach children?

To Trust In The Lord

Therein is the

Key to Life