but keep my commands in your heart,
and bring you prosperity.
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
in the sight of God and man.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who leave the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
16 It will save you also from the adulteress,
from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.
18 For her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
19 None who go to her return
or attain the paths of life.
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Those verses describe my mother. She was born 24 August 1920 and left this world behind 20 September 1996. We had “lost” her a few years earlier to Alzheimer’s Disease.
Before her first birthday, her family moved from Michigan to Washington, where she started school. In 1927, they returned to Michigan. That’s where she lived the rest of her life.
She was mostly a stay-at-home mom. However, she worked in a factory during WWII while dad was in the Air Corp.
While her children were growing up, she was there for them. Later, she worked in a dry cleaner shop operated by a friend.
Her faith was strong and she passed it along to her children. She was a woman of uncompromising integrity. For years, she was the financial secretary in the church where she was a member. Folks trusted her — completely. Perhaps it was because they never heard a word of gossip from her lips. She taught us the meaning of “closed mouthed.”
I am thankful that I see part of her in me. She gave me so much more than half her DNA. Thank God for Mother.
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
The Bible teaches the value of a work ethic. Here’s a tale of a lesson learned as told in translation and in a modern rendering of a portion of Proverbs 24.
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
— NIV
— The Message.
I’m sorry, but there are no graphics today. I have to rebuild the software and data files on my main computer. Restore did not work. It will be a painful process, but with persistence things should be back to normal (or better) soon.
Once again the spotlight falls on the Proverbs. Two verses for you today:
Or as my mother used to say, “Don’t toot your own horn.” She was a wise woman. Ask any of her children.
God bless and have a wonderful Sunday.