31 Days

In chapter 7, Solomon tells a story about him standing at the window in his house and watching a young man in the streets being seduced by a woman. She’s dressed with intent and with sweet words, leads him into her house. Solomon warns the young men listening to the stories to not let their hearts be turned towards these women or stray into her paths. The paths she leads men down lead to death.

It may seem obvious that it’s wise to not commit adultery with a prostitute but I can’t help but believe that these verses are applicable to men and Internet pornography.  I know some try to argue that since nothing physical is taking place, it’s not cheating.  But Jesus has a different opinion.  In Matthew 5:28 he says anyone that looks lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.  Also?  Ask a spouse of someone addicted.  You better believe she feels betrayed.

Well, it opens the topic. Is your spouse cheating with you? I know that sucks and that must be confirmed if that’s true or just gossips. Hiring people at discreetinvestigations.ca will be your best decision.

So that means men, listen up, the wisdom you need to take away is to “not stray into her paths” (v25).  You know what that means? 

Don’t even type in the URL. 

Don’t glance at the pictures. 

Don’t Google those search words. 

Don’t even go near a magazine. 

And women, listen, let’s not pretend that we don’t fall prey to Internet porn.  We must be wise as well about what we allow our eyes to see.

If you want to protect yourself, it’d be very wise to install some accountability software on your computer like Covenant Eyes and if you’re already entrenched and need out, I highly recommend XXXchurch.com or for females specifically, Dirty Girls Ministries.

Oh, this is an interesting passage to read on a sleepy Saturday morning 

1 My son,if you have put up securityfor your neighbor,
if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
² you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth.
³ So do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—^[a]
and give your neighbor no rest!
⁴ Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.
⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.

I come away with these verses with two four letter words.   One is wise and one is unwise.  The first word that is wise is WORK.  Solomon says to consider the ant.  Ants are the most annoying bug on the planet, maybe other than the fly, because they don’t stop.  They crawl everywhere.  You don’t ever just see an ant sunning on a rock.  They are busy, busy, busy.  That’s how we should be.

And perhaps it’s obvious why it’s wise to to work but Proverbs does point out the consequence for not working hard is poverty.  I was thinking on this and I don’t think it’s just that Solomon didn’t want us not to have the latest and greatest cable package but I think as Christians when we are poor, we are a drain of grace, not a fount of grace.  How can we be a light shining on a hill when we’re being lazy and sleeping and only taking from others?

And if you take that one step further, the four letter unwise word is DEBT.  That truly is like a four letter word to me.  Scott and I have always paid off all our credit cards every single month.  The only thing we’ve owed for is our house and cars and when we did owe on our cars, I had that gazelle like intensity that Dave Ramsey talks about from verse 5 to get it paid off. 

Verse 5 talks about freeing yourself as if you were enslaved.  That’s what being in debt feels like to me.  I owe someone and they have charge over it. I can’t enjoy what I have not knowing I own it outright.  Scott has tried to talk me into even doing things at 0% interest and I can’t do it. 

I always say you never know what’s going to happen in the next 12 months.  You can’t guarantee that you will have the same income and same circumstances that you do, in even 3 months.  It is wise to save for 12 months until you have it and then get it.  Now, I understand people’s fridge’s go out and you are forced into situations but that gazelle and ant-like working hard intensity should kick in to get it paid off just as soon as possible.

The cool thing about these verses is that the unwise thing, debt, is overcome by the wise thing, work.

And even more interesting to me is that Solomon calls out sleep as the number one hindrance to work.  While I completely believe in getting your due rest, not having the proper sleep patterns and habits can put you in a bind faster than you know.  You start missing work and not getting things done and bam!  No job! No income!  And then, debt!

Today is Saturday and a great day to work hard around the house and get things done!

Proverbs spends quite a bit of time speaking to men about the lack of wisdom in committing adultery. It hit me again just as I sat down to write about chapter 5 that David was Solomon’s father. It is no wonder that Solomon was so passionate about warning men against the adulteress. Bathsheba turned his father into a adulterer and murderer.

In fact, in Proverbs 5:8 it says “Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,”  I think it’s just fascinating when you think back to how David was enticed because he saw Bathsheba on her roof from his own home.  Solomon is saying stay faarrr from her house.

I think for men today that is applicable in many different ways.  Yes, it’s wise to stay physically far from her door but also I believe if you are enticed by a particular woman to stay faarrr from her altogether.  Quit going to the gym at the same time, quit going to lunch with her, quit emailing her and yes, unfriend her on Facebook.  It is not wise to allow yourself to be tempted. 

Solomon specifically addresses men in Proverb 5 but from someone who wrote a book on an emotional affair, I’m telling you it’s verrry wise for us women to stay faaarrrr from men that we think might entice us to be unfaithful.

Another set of verses that I just have to hit on while we’re on chapter 5 is verse 15. 

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

The first time I read that I was like, what the heck?  Why in a chapter about adultery are we talking about a well?

Then it hit me, ohhh, ohhhhhhhhhh!!  He’s talking about sex here.  The next set of verses utilize a metaphor.  The woman is a well, or a spring.

Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.

So here’s Amy’s translation

Have sex with your wife.
Should your wife be having sex with anyone else?
No way!  Only have sex with your wife and don’t share her.
May your wife be blessed and y’all have fun having sex.
I hope you are always satisfied with your wife, especially her breasts, and love her always, and if you are not I hope you decide to go for the Bust Boosters instead of surgery.

Solomon’s translation is way prettier, yes?  No wonder the Bible speaks in metaphors.

But seriously.  Having sex with your spouse and enjoying it is WISE. 

And wives, there is a takeaway here for us.  Solomon tells men to be captivated with us physically.  So what is wise for us?  Let him.  We have to allow our husbands the freedom to be satisfied, captivated, intoxicated with our bodies.  It’s so easy to push him off, to say later and to hold back.  But it is WISE for men to have eyes only for us and also WISE for us to allow him to act like that love drunk teenager every once in a while.

So yeah.  My family and friends have probably bailed on this post and Google is having a field day but I hope you take this seriously and drink a lot of water this weekend, if you know what I mean. *cough, cough*

Proverbs 4:3-9 (MSG)

When I was a boy at my father’s knee,
the pride and joy of my mother,
He would sit me down and drill me:
“Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live!
Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding!
Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch!
Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;
love her—she keeps her eye on you.
Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won’t regret it;
never let her go—she’ll make your life glorious.
She’ll garland your life with grace,
she’ll festoon your days with beauty.”

I am in love with this passage.  In Proverbs 4 today Solomon is remembering his childhood.  Do you remember who Solomon’s father was?  King David.  I love David.  He’s remembered a lot for his adultery with Bathsheba and surely that was not wise but there was much more to David that was wise.  God himself said he was a man after His own heart. 

In these verses you see Solomon speaking fondly of learning wisdom from King David and then Solomon passing his wisdom on to his children.

The very wisest thing we can do as parents is teach our kids any ounce of wisdom we have.  It’s harder for us to learn new ways and habits as adults but our children’s minds are malleable and so receptive to our teachings.  When we teach them wisdom at this age, it becomes a part of who they are instead of something they need to learn later.

As we dig and search for God’s wisdom, let’s not forget that we need to pass it on.  We ought to use every opportunity not to just tell them WHAT to do but be sure to pass on the WHY.  We should be memorizing God’s word together and digging in while they are still young.  Deuteronomy has a beautiful verse in 11:18-19

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.Teach them to your children,talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

I learned so much from my mom and I love that in everything I do, she’s always trying to pass on any wisdom she’s learned.  She’s done this my whole life and I give her so much credit for my love of God’s wisdom. I fail to do these things with my girls so often but I hope that the love of God’s word is passed on to my children. (thanks, Mom!)

Even if your parents did not provide that for you, God through his Holy Spirit can teach you these wise things and show you how to pass them on and make a new path for your family.  I’m praying it be so.

Today’s post scares me. I’ve been mulling this over for two days and I keep trying to pick out a different set of verses to share from Proverbs 3 but this one isn’t letting me go.  Hopefully that means it’s meant just for one of you so let’s get to it, shall we?

v9-10 Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.

Once again there is an If-then scenario here.  Proverbs tells you the wise thing and then you get something in return.  Being wise is…very wise! 

So what’s the if—the wise thing we ought to do? 

Let’s break it down to two parts.

1. Honor God with Everything You Own

The translation of “everything you own” means “wealth, riches or substance”.  So the obvious wise thing to do is honor God with the money you have, but that “substance” definition is also taken to mean your stuff.  Proverbs doesn’t provide a lengthy explanation of how to do that but given other verses I think these things are a good start:

• Using our money to provide for our family
• Giving our money to the poor where needed
• Using our home in hospitality
• Lending possessions as requested
• Giving possessions as needed

I read an article today at DesiringGod.org, that suggested hospitality is essential to the completion of the Great Commission.   I think this is a key to making a difference in our circles of influence.  What is more honoring to God than fulfilling the Great Commission?

There are a million ways to tackle the others listed. One thing I’ve taken to is just giving to whatever is in front of me.  If I see a person on the side of the road and have money, give to them.  If I run into a blog post asking for $5, give to them.  If I know a family member can’t pay a bill, give to them.

I’ve seen others suggest committing to just one charitable cause and going full steam into that to see what kind of difference you can make. 

I really don’t think you can go wrong when your intent is to honor God with what you have.

2. Give God Your First and Best

The NIV says to give the “firstfruits of all thine increase”.   Firstfruits means your first and best and your increase is your crops or revenue.  So the second part of this is to give God your first and best of your income. 

God gave us his first and best in his son Christ and we ought to give him our first and best.  This Scripture was referring to a tithe.  In the Old Testament, tithing was part of the law.

The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God.  Exodus 23:19

They gave back to remember what God had provided.  I love this verse in Deuteronomy:

But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. Deut 8:18

Since we are no longer under the law, some might quickly dismiss tithing but I think like many laws, you’ll find the New Testament even more challenging.   The New Testament church in Acts gave much more than the required 10%.  Giving and sharing was a way of life.  People were selling their property just to take care of someone else.  That is what giving your best looks like. 

Jesus didn’t condemn anyone for tithing (only showing off about it) and really, really liked it when a poor widow gave 100% of what she had with a good attitude.

“I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:3-4

If giving 100% with a good attitude makes Jesus happy, well, then, we have a lot of work to do.  I’ll let that stomp on your toes for a little while.  The point is the religious leaders he condemned were not giving their first and best—they were giving out of what was left over–and Jesus was not satisfied. 

The good news and hope is it says if we are wise in this way, “Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over”.  I’m no prosperity preacher but there’s a promise in there no one can refute.  Even Luke 6:38 it mirrors this idea:

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

When you honor God with all you have and all you get, He provides richly. 

Whether it be by worldly wealth or a spiritual blessing, does it matter?  If he does bless you with worldly riches, the cool thing is if you are honoring God with all you have and all you get, that just means you get to honor God more with all you have and all you get.  There should be lots of giving and lending and sharing in there and not hoarding. 

Whew.  OK.  I think we managed to get through just 2 verses of Proverbs 3.  Again, there is so much in Proverbs, take some time to read the rest and then decide how to put your new wisdom into practice. 

Tomorrow we tackle Proverbs 4!

Oh my goodness.  Fitting Proverbs into 31 days is going to be a CHORE.  I’ve been reading a few chapters ahead and I’m pretty sure I could have 365 days of wisdom posts. Proverbs is just packed.

I’m going to try really hard to seek God’s WISDOM on what to talk about.  I know he has me writing for a reason and YOU reading for a reason.  My hope is that I present that reason in writing.

I really want to encourage you to use this to start a habit of reading a chapter of Proverbs every day.  God’s word is truly alive and every single time I read it, a new take-away appears.  Your take-away may be different than mine and I don’t want you to miss a thing!

Here we go for Day 2.  Yesterday we said that we need to accept our need for wisdom.  I hope your next question is then how do I get wisdom?  Proverbs is oh-so-wise and answers that directly in Chapter 2.

My son,if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs is pretty bossy, isn’t it?  Gaining wisdom is no walk in the park. First, you need to realize gaining wisdom is an If-Then deal.  My little programming heart loves If-Then statements.  You HAVE to meet the IF if you want the part after the THEN.  Proverbs says IF you do these things:

ACCEPT my words

STORE UP my commands

TURN your ear

APPLY your heart

CALL OUT for insight

CRY ALOUD for understanding

LOOK for it

SEARCH for it.

Then and only then will you find the knowledge of God.

So here’s the deal.  Those are all calls to action…store up, call out, cry aloud, look, search.  Whatever you need wisdom about?  You’re going have to do the “IF” part and DIG DEEP if you ever want the knowledge of God in the “THEN” part.  Search God’s word, memorize applicable Scripture, pray constantly, ask other wise people, read books.  Getting wisdom is like one big treasure hunt. 

Wisdom is not a party favor for being a Christian.  Wisdom is a treasured prize for the worn-out seeker.

I don’t know about you, but I’m totally failing on nearly all accounts.  I accept that God’s word is right but I’m not doing the rest of the hard work required.  The whole reason I started this is because I couldn’t even commit to reading a chapter a day of Proverbs to gain wisdom.  Let’s not even talk about memorizing or doing anything!  Ugh!

So it’s time.  IF you want wisdom, THEN pick up your shovels, folks. It’s time to start digging!

Most of life is gray, wouldn’t you agree? 

Half the time I don’t know what I’m doing because there isn’t a black and white answer.  What do I eat for breakfast?  How do I attack my to-do list?  How do I punish my daughter for lying?  How do I respond when someone hurts my feelings? 

No clear right or wrong.

It’s all so…gray.

The answers lie in wisdom: knowing what to do and how to think when you’re drowning in gray.

For months now I’ve been trying to read a chapter of Proverbs each day but somehow get lost in the midst and rarely read it faithfully all month.

The Nester’s 31 Days series is the perfect time to nail down a commitment to Proverbs given its 31 chapters. 

I’m not offering up my wisdom.  Oh no.  I don’t even pretend to have it.  But I thought we might look for it together, taking one chapter from Proverbs a day and seeing what jumps out at us.

Would you like to join me?

Today for chapter 1, the word fool keeps jumping out at me.

v7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

v32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; and be at ease, without fear of harm.

The first thing we need to learn to be wise is to accept we need wisdom from the Lord.  It’s a fool that rejects the wisdom of the Lord.  It sounds so simple but many believe they are smart enough and wise enough on their own.  I can figure it out.  I’ve heard it so many times.  Why do you need God to help you?   Are you that helpless?

I don’t know about you, but I can, in fact, be quite helpless in my gray situations.

I’m looking forward to these 31 days together to see black and white we can separate from the gray.  Please join me in seeking the Lord to come alive in these well-known verses that we might accept wisdom’s advice.