Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender. Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will come to an end. Proverbs 22:6-8 NLT
The Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song, Teach Your Children Well, a hit when it was released in 1970, has remained a favorite over the years and is often heard performed by competitors in music shows. Perhaps its continuing popularity has something to do with the age-old wisdom it contains: “You who are on the road must have a code you try to live by. And so become yourself because the past is just a goodbye.”
Sounds like Solomon, known as the wisest human ever. He said parents must have a code of values directing the way they live; a path to follow. He said teaching children at a young age gives them the best chance of staying with the right values. Another anonymous wise person said, “The best way to teach your children the right path is to walk on it yourself.” Whether or not we follow that axiom, we all realize it is true. It’s nearly impossible to teach your children to do what you yourself don’t or won’t do. They easily pick up our true values by what we do.
It’s no accident that the next two verses follow verse seven. We mostly just stop at verse seven and agree that we need to instruct our children about God, and we center that teaching around a few understandably necessary topics. But all the way through Proverbs Solomon drops nuggets of wisdom about topics in which our children should be well-schooled. Two of them are right here. Verse eight says that injustice will always lead to disaster. The reign of terror of any size bully will eventually come to an end. We must be sure we oppose injustice all around. That’s a lesson best learned at home among siblings, modeled by our parents.
Then Solomon talks about a basic financial lesson it seems many Americans have not yet learned: “The rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.” You know it. That BIG purchase you made that was more than you could easily afford became a burden long before you paid for it. Your creditor really owned it, and you had to make monthly payments that were overwhelming. My first real idea of eternity was when Charlie and I got a loan for our first car! An uninsured drunk driver hit it in our third year, and we didn’t get enough insurance money to completely pay off the loan, let alone get a new, comparable car. While we had been given much good advice, we were never taught that debt kills dreams more often than it fulfills them. So, how do we live without crippling debt? Another Jesus principle: “If any man wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself” (Luke 9:23). Self-denial in God’s wisdom is not “NO” forever. It’s no for now so we can have the right, best YES later.
- Jesus, help me teach my children well by my example of wise choices and self-denial.