The Words of a Dad

I will never cease to be thankful for a Dad (and a Mum) who saw it as their loving duty to teach me the ways of the Lord when I was young – before I reached the impressionable teenage years when it is so easy for young people to go astray and, as they say, ‘do their own thing’. ‘Doing their own thing’ can be extremely risky, for having the developing physique and unbridled will of a young person, without the maturity of an adult can lead to making mistakes of life-long consequence.

When we learn to respect our elders, we will listen to what they have to say. And the wisdom that comes from their maturity, becomes the wisdom that will help young people negotiate the traps that the enemy never ceases to lay in the paths of young people. We live, however, in a generation when respect for the wisdom of our elders has been replaced by information acquired at the click of a mouse or via a mobile phone. And information, without the maturity and wisdom how to use that, will always be a massive trap for young people.

Such knowledge will never trump the spiritual wisdom the writer of these Proverbs is referring to. For this is the wisdom from the heart of God which God intended to be passed on from generation to generation.

As I thought about this I was overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility that parents, grand-parents, great grand-parents, uncles and aunts have to pray for and impart the wisdom of their years to the upcoming generations – giving them a chance to negotiate the pitfalls of life with the wisdom of the older generations to aid them on their journey. In so doing we will be equipping the young to enter into their destiny in God and who knows what blessing there will be down the years as a result!?

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for all those who have imparted the wisdom of God into my life. Help me to exercise my own spiritual responsibility by imparting Your Wisdom to the children and young people who are part of my wider family. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.