Thursday, April 24, 2008

Proverbs and Parenting

I have been teaching through the Proverbs topically in our young marrieds/singles class as well as in our student ministries. My friends at pulpit magazine summarized the following thoughts on parenting in a very helpful way.

The book of Proverbs is a wonderful, intensely practical guide that contains much wisdom you can impart to your children as you train them in godly living. For your benefit, we’ve compiled ten lessons from Proverbs you should teach to your children. We’re convinced that, in the process of teaching those ten lessons, you’ll unearth many more principles from Proverbs that will serve your children well their entire lives.

Teach your children:

1. To have a healthy fear of God (1:7; 9:10; 10:27; 14:26-27; 15:16; 16:6; 19:23)
2. To guard their minds (4:23; 23:7)
3. To obey you (1:8; 4:1-4; 6:20-23; 30:17)
4. To carefully select their companions (1:11-18; 2:10-15; 13:20)
5. To control their sinful desires (2:16-19; 5:3-5; 6:23-33; 7:6-27)
6. To enjoy sexual fidelity (5:15-20)
7. To watch their words (4:24; 10:11, 19-21, 32; 12:18, 22; 15:1-2; 16:23; 20:15)
8. To pursue their work (6:6-11; 10:4-5; 22:29)
9. To manage their money (3:9-10; 11:24-26; 19:17; 22:9)
10. To love their neighbors (3:27-29; 25:21-22)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Healthy Praise


One of the things we take for granted most often is good health. After I did a summer internship at USC medical center I realized why people say, “Health is the first wealth.” In reality, good health is a wonderful gift from the Lord. Not all people are blessed with it.

The past few weeks have been pretty rough for us. Evelyn (our 2 year old) has had pink eye, an ear infection, and the flu. Our 5 month old son has had pink eye, an ear infection, and chicken pox. Last night I realized rather quickly that I had a case of “food poisoning.” Thankful the one taking care of everyone (Andrea) has remained healthy.

On Sunday night I preached a sermon from Psalm 57 called, “How to Cultivate a Worshipful Heart in the Midst of any Affliction.” The 3 principles that I gleaned from the text were 1. Invite the grace of God in your life (v. 1). 2. Embrace the providence of God over your life (vv. 2-6). 4. Worship the Character of God with your life (vv 7f).

A true saint will ask God for the faith to worship Him even when things in life are tough. That is what Andrea and I have been praying for lately. God is good and worthy to be praised!