Proverbs and Parenting

When we read through the Proverbs we often forget that much of the book is framed as a parental plea to children. The collection commences with the words, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and forsake not your mother’s teaching” (Proverbs 1:8). Of course we ought to go to the Proverbs for God’s wisdom regarding our own lives, but what an overlooked resource when we fail to prayerfully read this inspired book with our children in view. Solomon boldly warns his child of the deceptive enticements of temptation (Proverbs 1:10), the corruptive influence of rebellious friends (Proverbs 1:15), the value of God’s painful discipline (Proverbs 3:11), the incomparable rewards of righteous choices (Proverbs 4:10), the repercussions of sexual sins (Proverbs 5:20), the enslavement of financial debt (Proverbs 6:1), the grief that a rebellious child brings to his parents (Proverbs 10:1), the shameful by-products of laziness (Proverbs 10:5), the incomparable joy a child’s wise choices bring to parents (Proverbs 23:24), and the necessity of the fear of God (Proverbs 24:21), just to name a few. So if the dialog with your kids has degenerated to “So, how was school today?” perhaps you should take a cue from the book of Proverbs and engage in the kind of conversation that your children could only get from a loving and godly parent.