Pedestrian God

Foolishness is Contagious

Sep 30 2014

One of the hardest topics for me to explain to my middle school girls in Sunday School is how to find an appropriate balance between spending time with an unbeliever in order to build a relationship and share Christ and spending too much time with them so that you are the one being influenced to fall away from Christ.

As we’ve studied through Proverbs for all these summer months, one truth that has stuck out is that foolishness is contagious. I was once told by a mother of twin (now 4-year old) boys, that what one brother would never even consider doing, twin brothers will accomplish in record time.

Proverbs 13:20 tells us that “The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”

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Families of a Fool

Sep 18 2014

I sunk my head onto the steering wheel in the parking lot as I listened, for the second time in a year, to a mother weeping on the phone as she tells me that her son has been arrested. She’s crying out to God to give her wisdom and to change her son’s heart.

Proverbs 10:1, “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.”

What Fools Hate

Sep 12 2014

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.
– Proverbs 1:7

As a child, I memorized that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But to this day if you had asked me to complete the verse, I wouldn’t be able to. As I’ve matured in my faith and spent more time in Scripture, I have found several places in Scripture where this is true.

Fools despise wisdom and discipline. This truth may have been more important for little kid Renae to grasp than knowing the origin of knowledge. I was definitely disciplined on earth much more 12 years ago than I am today.

Let’s couple this well-known verse with another one a mere 15 verses later:

How long, foolish ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge?
– Proverbs 1:22

What do you hate?

Hate is a strong word, but I would probably find several items to list in this category. I hate: live insects in my house, eating breakfast without orange juice, all things tomatoes except for ketchup, and using the stall without toilet paper.

My quick response of things that I hate revolve around earthly concerns – my comfort and preferences.

A Fool’s Trust

Sep 06 2014

The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
– Proverbs 28:26

Who are three people in your life that you trust? Who was included in that list – a spouse, employer, friend, pastor?

Did you list yourself?

A Fool’s Path

Aug 27 2014

A wise man is cautious and turns from evil…a man’s own foolishness leads him astray.
– Proverbs 14:6a & 19:3a

When I think about Jesus’ call on our life to enter in the narrow gate and avoid the broad path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7), I congratulate myself for choosing the narrow path when I was seven. Once on the narrow path, always on the narrow path…right?

As I continue to follow Christ into adulthood, I am learning that every decision I make creates a new path in my life. But this metaphorical narrow path has exit signs every two minutes or so inviting me to inadvertently merge onto the broad path.

Proverbs instructs us that a wise man turns away from evil whereas a foolish man turns toward it and is led astray. Vague definitions and descriptions of “evil” create barriers for us to reflect on this warning personally. We tend to think, “Of course I’m not running toward EVIL!”

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