Proverbs 23 Devotional Study

Passing down wisdom is the best gift you’ll give your kids

As parents, we hope our kids can turn down drugs, alcohol, and pornography without hesitation. If only we could will them to make better choices, they could avoid much pain and experience more joy.

But as we lead our kids toward good choices, it’s important to ask: Is our goal to raise our kids in righteousness? Or, are we simply keeping our kids busy striving for earthly success?

Proverbs 23 is a call to steer clear from the things of this world because they yield a poor return on our investment. Riches and fame are fleeting, while wisdom and truth will bring ultimate joy and fulfillment.

If we want our kids to be wise, we need to guide them in pursuing wisdom for themselves. While it’s important to model character and integrity, we must also be intentional in molding teachable spirits. If our children learn to obey us, they’ll be prepared to submit to other authority figures in their lives, including the Lord.

We want our kids to make the right choices, but the only way they can succeed is by learning the difference between God’s truth and the messages they hear daily from media and culture. Sometimes, they’ll get it right. And sometimes, they’ll get it wrong. But even as our kids experience the consequences of bad choices, they gain the wisdom of choosing better next time.

Wisdom is not a pill to swallow for instant clarity. It is blooming inside our kids through a lifetime of choices. May we discern the wisdom of the ages in these proverbs for ourselves and pour them into our kids, so they create a bottomless well our kids draw from for the rest of their lives.

Reflect:

Proverbs 23:1  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: 

Proverbs 23:2  And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 

Proverbs 23:3  Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. 

Proverbs 23:4  Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. 

Proverbs 23:5  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. 

Proverbs 23:6  Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 

Proverbs 23:7  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. 

Proverbs 23:8  The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. 

Proverbs 23:9  Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. 

Proverbs 23:10  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: 

Proverbs 23:11  For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. 

Proverbs 23:12  Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. 

Proverbs 23:13  Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. 

Proverbs 23:14  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. 

Proverbs 23:15  My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 

Proverbs 23:16  Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 

Proverbs 23:17  Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. 

Proverbs 23:18  For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. 

Proverbs 23:19  Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 

Proverbs 23:20  Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 

Proverbs 23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 

Proverbs 23:22  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. 

Proverbs 23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 

Proverbs 23:24  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 

Proverbs 23:25  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. 

Proverbs 23:26  My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 

Proverbs 23:27  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. 

Proverbs 23:28  She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. 

Proverbs 23:29  Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 

Proverbs 23:30  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 

Proverbs 23:31  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 

Proverbs 23:32  At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 

Proverbs 23:33  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 

Proverbs 23:34  Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 

Proverbs 23:35  They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.   



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