Proverbs 1 7-9
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
The fear of the Lord is indeed the beginning of wisdom. It puts natural boundaries around us, and safeguards us from much that is destructive–and from its consequences. The fear of the Lord preserves us from learning about the foolishness and the acrid fruits of sin in the bitter school of trial and error.
Discipline. Something I have both craved and struggled with all my life. Interestingly, psychotherapist Scott Peck in his perennial best-seller, The Road Less Travelled, talks about discipline–deferring gratification–as the foundation of a decent human life. As parents, we have a dual burden: to discipline ourselves, and to teach self-discipline to our children so that they realize the value of their lives, their time and themselves, and later instinctively practice it.
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
