Ask Your Dad
Proverbs 1:8-9
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.
THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside... I just finished cleaning."
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
"Because I said so, that's why."
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
7. My mother taught me IRONY.
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck?"
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA..
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
One of the things I have learned being the father of two girls is that their eyeballs are more flexible than a gymnast. Both girls are champion eye-rollers! They can roll their eyes so far back in their head that you can practically hear them snap like an old roller shade when they come back into focus. Normally it’s because their mother or I have said something that they think is foolish.
As parents our ways and thoughts are just so old fashioned and out of touch with current reality. (Or at least that is what the children seem to think) We probably thought the same things about our parents as well. In fact, when I was a teenager I knew everything. I was the smartest person in the world, and had an answer for every problem. My parents? Well they just didn’t understand.
When I became a parent, I learned that there is no manual to parenting. There is not an edition of Cliff’s Notes to bone up before an exam, there is just the reality of life and some things are only learned by experience. It is these things that our parents tried to share with us, and had we listened we might have saved ourselves some troubles.
Truth is, these verses could equally apply to any older saint among us. Throughout the book or proverbs we see the importance of obtaining wisdom, and what better place to obtain it than from someone who has already gone through what we are experiencing?
Our parents told us to clean our plate. What a powerful set of lessons we can learn from that simple instruction. We learn that we should have compassion for those less fortunate than us, (there are starving people in China) and we learn the value of self-control (only take what you can eat and don’t be greedy).
Another thing we glean from our parents is “Because I said so!” While none of us liked hearing that as a child, as a parent we realize that some of the time there really is no other answer. So it is in our relationship with God. Some of the time we just have to do it because HE said so.
There was a scene in It’s A Wonderful Life where, as a boy, George Baily wasn’t sure of what to do. Just then he saw a sign that read, "Ask dad - he always knows what’s right." That may not always be true of us earthly dads, but it is certainly true of our heavenly Father.
Honoring the aged and experienced among us creates that wonderful mantle around our neck that we can pass on to the generations behind us.
Dear Heavenly Father, creator of families, give us the grace to honor our mothers and fathers, both biological and spiritual. Allow us to see the wisdom in the teaching that they share and give us the faith to pass it on to our own children. Amen