Proverbs 4:1-27

The path of wisdom has been passed down from generation to generation as fathers tell their children how they ought to live their lives.  Parents love their children and are anxious to see them be successful.  Many times our parents have made mistakes in their own lives that they desperately want to help their children avoid.  We ought to pay close attention to the instruction of our fathers and learn how to be free from the consequences of following wicked men that often surround us.  We should be thankful for the wise instruction that has been given to us and then be faithful to pass it on to our own children.

LOVE THE PATH OF WISDOM: Hearing the instructions of our fathers and the Word of God is the first step to loving the path of wisdom.  Too often young people think that they know everything and that they do not need to pay attention to the instruction of their elders.  We must learn to listen to and love that instruction.  These instructions have the power to extend our lives and make our time on this earth much more productive and enjoyable.  We must train our hearts to value and love wisdom more than any other thing.  Wisdom will bring us great honor, authority and even prosperity and greater productivity.  Wisdom will allow us to avoid the pitfalls of life that those who have gone before us have experienced.  We must lay hold of wisdom and keep it firmly in our grip and our hearts should be full of love for wisdom.


LEAVE THE PATH OF WICKEDNESS: The wicked have a far different path that they want us to walk on.  We must learn to turn our backs on this path and avoid it at all costs.  The wicked take pleasure in the pain of others and will not rest until they have inflicted others with great pain and suffering.  They are violent and they take pleasure in luring unsuspecting people into their paths.  The path of wisdom is bright with light and open for all who desire to walk in it.  The path of the wicked is full of darkness and causes those who walk in it to stumble and fall.  We must listen closely to instructions of wisdom and guard our hearts from the wicked ways.  They cause our speech to be evil and without truth.  The wicked path is devious and deceitful and we must never allow our feet to swerve into that destructive path. 

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