"A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother."
Prov 10:1
Boy, isn't that the truth: "a foolish son is the grief of his mother". I'm sure you have been in a store or out at a restaurant and had your son do something utterly foolish and you wished you could just become invisible or act like you have never seen this child in your life. Well, I know it has happened to me many times. Now that my oldest is in Jr. High, people tend to excuse the behavior and say "Oh that explains it". Many parents and authority figures seem to allow behavior, because they believe it is a "phase" and "all kids this age act this way". I'm not sure that I buy that argument. I have seen teenagers who don't behave this way and are much more mature than their peers and are serving the Lord with all their heart. I'd much rather have my son like the latter.
God calls us to be "set apart". This means we should be different...right? As I look at the life of Daniel, I see a young man who didn't act foolish, and stood for what was right, even when his life was threatened. Wow, what a testimony for us to share with our boys! Daniel chose to obey God even in the face of great danger. Would my son do the same? Would yours?
Having a child with special challenges, and knowing that he is more prone to be more easily led away into foolishness or sin, I have "insulated" him from many situations until we were able to be confident that we had given him the right biblical foundation to help him make right choices. My husband and I have used scripture in teaching him right from wrong, because we knew that was the most important thing, for him to know what the Lord requires of His children. It has proven to be very effective over the years, and we have seen him do the "right" things many times.
Lately, we have noticed a change, and are working to find ways to help him as he enters this new stage of development. One thing that Brooke had suggested in the Leaders Guide, was to do a study with our sons on the "foolish" man vs. the "wise" man. I thought, that is a GREAT idea. So this week, I'm planning to spend time during our bible time to search the concordance for the word fool, foolish, foolishness, and wise or maybe even righteous man. Maybe we can even make a game out of it to help them remember it better. 'llI keep you posted on how it goes and post pictures as we go through it.
I am praying for all who are following along here and looking forward to what God is doing in our sons lives. How are you doing? Any praises or prayer requests? Please comment and let me know how things have been going over the last 4 days. I look forward to hearing from you!
Goal for today
- Pray the 10 prayers on "Avoiding Foolishness" (p.22) over each of your boys throughout the day.
- Consider doing a study with your boys on what the scripture says about the foolish man vs. the wise man.
Avoiding Foolishness
May __________ avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless (Titus 3:9).
May __________ have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; for they breed quarrels (2Timothy 2:23).
May __________ not participate in filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:4).
May __________ hear these words of Yours, act on them, and avoid being like a foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matthew 7:26).
May __________ be more like a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take advice (Ecclesiastes 4:13).
May __________ not be foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures (Titus 3:3).
May __________ leave the presence of a fool, for there he will not meet words of knowledge (Proverbs14:7).
May __________ not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Ephesians 5:17).
May our sons be like a poor person who walks in his integrity rather than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool (Proverbs 19:1).
May __________ have a wise man’s heart inclining him to the right, and not a fool’s heart inclining to the left (Ecclesiastes 10:2).
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