The Crown

Proverbs 1:^8-9 “My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honour around your neck.”

Are you embarking on an exciting journey? Guess what? Some people are on their way back from that same journey. Locate them and ask for the ancient way to do it and the Godly path to take. That is why Solomon, the writer of most of the chapters in the Book of Proverbs would often write, “My son, listen to me. How many ears do you have? Listen to me, my son, do not do A and do not do B. I too was my father’s son, and my father taught me. I have experience, so listen to me.” (paraphrased). The truth is that when it comes to the things that we suffer, some of them we have to go through, but some of them are completely unnecessary.

Proverbs 31:^1-3 “The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message, which his mother taught him. O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows, do not waste your strength on women, on those who ruin kings.” This is a mother, an older woman, advising her son. If you listen, you do yourself good. If you say, “What does this old man know?”, by the time you are coming down, it will be too late. I pray that it will not be too late for you in Jesus Name.

1 Kings 20:¹¹ “The king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘A man who puts on [his armour to go to battle] should not boast like the man who takes it off [after the battle has been won].’” (AMP). You see someone coming from battle, bloodied, with cuts, and his clothes are torn, but he made it back. You are just dressing up to go to battle, and you are looking at him and laughing at him. Don’t laugh yet, first go and come back. The secret to triumphant living is tied up in ancient wisdom that if you pay attention and if you ask, you will not suffer loss. If you insist on learning everything by experience, you will limit your access to wisdom.

If the boy in the picture insists on learning everything by experience, he will be cutting off his access to the wisdom that was coming down the stairs. You cannot learn everything by experience. Some things you will inevitably learn by experience. But to learn everything by experience, in fact, you cannot live long enough to learn everything by experience. So, attempting to gain wisdom solely from your own experiences limits your growth.

Prayer: Father, help me not to be casual with the relationships, things, and pathways that can change my destiny for good, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!