When we were going through the book of Proverbs as a church I noticed how the author spoke to his son, taking time to share wisdom. This caught my attention, because I have two sons, Carter and Parker.
God soon taught me how I could use His Word, Proverbs, to share wisdom with my own sons.
Let me give a little background: My son Carter has a tender heart and gets caught up in his emotions and feelings when he is hurt, especially in friendships. He has gotten bullied at times, and kids who one day claim to be his friend are enemies the next. He comes home angry and confused. As a mother, I had no explanation except, “It is what it is.”
But that wasn't enough for him. So I did the only thing I knew how to do: I went to the Word of God.
After time passed, so did the friendship problems. But, I knew they would be back. So, through the Proverbs series, as I started to notice the recurring themes on friends, I jotted down the Scripture and reference. I tucked it away and forgot all about it.
Well, when the school year started, so did the problems my son had the year before. God brought to mind the Scriptures I had written down on friendship. I was so relieved to have that encouragement to give to my son and not just, "It is what it is." In fact, I now know that was very insensitive to what he was going through and didn't give him the tools he needed.
So we sat down on his bed, and I told him God had me write down these Scriptures for him because God knew Carter was going to need them. Carter took the notebook out of my hand and proceeded to read out loud each one. At the end, he looked at me and said, " If I would have known this before, it would have saved me from a lot of mistakes and hurt." Wouldn’t it be great if we all read Scripture that way?
Like Woody says, "Learn, and then live." What would life look like for us and our families if we used the Word of God to live by instead of living and then learning?
The next day when he got off of the bus, Carter looked at me with confidence and said, "I took God’s advice." It was music to my ears to hear my son listen to God’s Word and step out in faith and act on what he knew God wanted him to do.
-Tabitha North