Truth needs to be your roommate!

Probing Proverbs 6:20-23 My son, obey your father’s commands, and don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you. For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way to life. 

There are two very important points here: the first is dealing with the responsibility parents have. If we allow life to “just happen” to our children, sin nature and the enemy is what will happen to them.  Humans do not live in a vacuum! There is no “neutral” ground for our children to stand on. They are either moving uphill toward God or downhill toward destruction. We cannot control them and they may even reject our input, however, the only chance they do have is if we are “proactive” in our counsel, encouragement and especially consistent in our modeling of a life close to God. If we love our children, we owe them a positive example of God’s love and wisdom…otherwise they are at the mercy of a very evil world. 

The second point deals with receiving truth. We need to raise the bar here because not everyone has godly parents giving godly counsel. The principle is this – whenever and wherever God’s wisdom is given to us, we must keep it before us. Many times we hear truth and it passes from one ear to the other. This is why so many times in the Scriptures we see the phrase “He that has ears to hear, LISTEN”. “Truth” is a useless visitor; it needs to be a resident! This is called “conscious living”. When we meditate on the Truth that has been shared with us, we walk through life with our eyes open. Keep God’s wisdom at the front of your thoughts and your life will experience what Christ called abundant living!