Courageous Joy

PARENTING IN PROVERBS - CH 21

21:2 "Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts."


~Heart - center of man's being - encompasses intellect, will and soul

21:3 "to do righteousness and justice is desired by the Lord more than sacrifice."


~Are the sacrifices you're making required of the Lord - or do they just seem good in your own mind? The Lord requires justice, righteousness, and obedience, over our own ideas of sacrifice.

21:21 "He who puruses righteousness and loyalty finds life, reighteousness and honor."

21:23 "he who keepeth (KJV) his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from trouble."

~Any Scriptural use of the word Keep, Keeper or Keepeth grabs my attention and warrants a word study - yep the ongoing study of "house keeper" (literally comes from two words meaning home guard). Let me be clear that THIS word is a Hebrew word and NOT the GREEK word used in Titus....but I am always interested in what the word "keep" meant to those who heard it in the culture it was written in (I am fully aware of what many commentators say it means)...because one of my duties as a godly wife/mother is to "keep/ guard" my home.


~Keepeth - #8104 Shamar or Samar - verb
Strongs - hedge about, guard, protect, take heed, look narrowly, preserve
Dr Z. - to watch over, keep, preserve, guard, be careful, to care for


SO in this verse - I am to watch, protect, hedge about my MOUTH......and this will guard my soul from trouble. How do I think this applies to parenting? I don't know about YOU but I've had words I said in haste to my children that I've regretted. My sould would have been much more trouble-free if I'd hedged my mouth and given an answer later.....

21:31 "The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord."


~Parenting isn't a battle, but honestly, there are days when it sure feels like it!!! And around here the past few weeks have been tough.

~As in so many areas of my life I am to be prepared but realize that God is my defender/warrior and the vitory is found in Him.

~A very current example of this is my alphabet soup child. I am researching all I can. I'm preparing a plan of "battle" but any victory and success that we see with him is coming direct from God.