How To Get Wisdom

Justin sits down to study with his 8-year old daughter and 6-year old son as they work through Proverbs 4. See how Justin's daughter helps his son as they go through this study.

You can watch the video of this study at www.youtube.com/appianmedia

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Hi there, my name is Justin Dobbs, and this is listen, my children, I'm a husband, I'm a dad, and I'm learning to do what a lot of you are doing, one of the most difficult but most important things I'll ever do, bring up my children to follow the father. Over the next couple of episodes, we're going to continue to walk through the first five chapters of Proverbs, you, me and our kids. Listen, my children podcast is made possible by a donation from the Oliver family, we're thankful for their generous support of Appian medius content. If you or your organization is interested in helping to fund content like this, please contact us through our website at Appian Media dot org. Today, Linden and Amos are going to be joining us. Linden is eight, Amos is six. And we're going to listen in on a conversation that we had in our family's living room. We're talking through Proverbs four. So if you have a Bible, you can open that up to Proverbs four as we talk about how to get wisdom. A steadfast no, no, no, no one I don't. We say, OK, what about. I will sing along and I will saying I will sing, I will sing the season of my life forever. I will sing my sins and go on with my life. I make no. By faith, I think, with my mouth, well, I may know thy faithfulness to all generations, I will sing my songs, that I will sing, I will sing, I will sing the mercy of the Lord forever. I sing the first word. Ok, so we could you could just that song just kind of keeps going and going because I know we're kind of tired and you just stay with me for a little bit. You ready. Yeah. Yeah. Captaining a ship. Yeah. Ok, so we're going to be in Proverbs Chapter four and maybe Linden can share her Bible with you in this. But in Proverbs for what we want to look at here is. The father in Proverbs has been talking to his son, to his children. He's saying, listen, let me tell you about wisdom and let me see if we can remember this. Where does wisdom come from? Where does it start? God starts with God and it starts with how awesome and wonderful and amazing God is. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, because despite this stress, we don't like to be told what to do. I don't like to be told what to do. But when you know that God's doing it for our good, it sure does help. And God wants us to know what to do. He wants to tell us what to do to help us. So what I want to do, God does not want us to be a fool. That's right. He doesn't want to be if it is not good for us to be fools and fools think they know everything. Wise people know they've got a lot to learn. So in Proverbs four, what I want you to hear is the father is saying, son, get wisdom. So I'm going to read a little bit. It's going to be a little bit long and maybe linen. You want to help me read a little bit and then I can try and read a little bit, too. All right, Linda, can you can you let Amos look over your shoulder and read Proverbs Chapter four verses one through to somewhere start. You read the first two verses, buddy, yeah, oh, sons, a father's and the. Chin and me, I attentive that you may gain insight, but I give you good presence, good precepts, good places, you do not forsake my teaching and we read three through nine for me. Sure. When I was done with my father, the only one in sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me that you hold your heart, hold fast to my words, keep my commandments and live, get wisdom, get inside. Do not forget and do not turn away in the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will keep you ever and she will guide you. The beginning of wisdom is this great wisdom. And whatever you love, you get. Get inside your head and she will exalt you. She will honor you. If you embrace her, she will place on your head a graceful garland. Your best, don't you? A beautiful. Well done. Well done. Now there are lots of words that we've talked about. Remember the graceful Garland crown? The wisdom gives you good things like that. But but if you don't, they got the bad stuff, you get the bad stuff now. So he's wanting his son to have wisdom, is teaching him the wisdom. Now, the reason he's teaching is to have wisdom is because his dad taught him to have wisdom. Did you catch that? He says, my son when my father was with me, he taught me these things. Now, how do you how do you start getting wisdom? Well, we already said the fear the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, right? Yes. I have to fear God, fear God, treat him like he's awesome and great and mighty. But there's another way of saying that. How do you start? Wisdom's really hard to get. It takes hard work to learn. It's not easy, but it's not that easy. How do you start? Well, we just read that. Here's the beginning of wisdom. You get it. How do you how do you begin to get wisdom? You get you just get it. You get a go at it. It's sort of like when you learn to do anything, how do you ever learn to know? How do you ever learn to tie your shoes and you you tontos teach you, but you've got to start picking up the laces, right. And putting them together. How do you ever learn to to read and taught us. Yeah, but you got to just start picking up a book and looking at the words. Right. You got to start right. Wisdom's hard but you got to start in order to get it. And what what Solomon is doing for his son now is he's saying, look, this is tough. But it doesn't get easier when you don't try. You got to try, so wisdom comes to people who work hard for it. And let me keep reading just a little bit here and then we'll talk some more. But he says here, my son, and accept my words. If the years of your life may be many names were in verse 11 there. I've taught you the way of wisdom. I've led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction. Do not let go guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it. Do not go on it, turn away from it and pass on where they cannot sleep unless they've done wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble where they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. My son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart for their life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance or from it. So the springs of life. But away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you ponder the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil. Now, earlier with Amos and Jubilee, we talked about how wisdom is compared to a path like you, I think kissing each other. Yeah, we get to know a little bit more about wisdom when we put those two things beside each other. But there's another path. And problems for teaching us there's another path. And in another part, there's another path through the woods. There is and this path takes you this way in this path, takes you this way. And if you go down this path, well, things start to open up and it gets brighter and brighter and more and more beautiful. And things are just wonderful, wonderful. If you go down this path, well, it's looking good so far. But then things get darker and things start to start growing up over the path and it gets worse and worse and darker and darker. And all of a sudden you can't even see and you're stumbling and stuff could come. There are dangers all over the place. This path is the path of the righteous, and wisdom shows us that path. This path is the path of the wicked. And fools go down this path. Now, God wants us to lay hold of this path, to hold on to it, to walk with wisdom, to listen to struction, that's not just trying to tell us what to do because it makes him feel big. We're trying to tell us what to do because it keeps us safe and leads us to where he wants us to go. So what you need to know from Proverbs four is that there are a lot of paths, there are a lot of ways to live life, but there's only one. There's only one that shows you the right way, shows you the way of wisdom. Now. How do you stay on that right way, is it is there like just obeying God? Yeah. So is there like if you if you left left our house and you went, would you find like a path outside that said, here's a wisdom and would you like find a real road out there? No, this is an idea. Where is the path. Well, it starts in your heart. In your heart. Which is why he says you keep your heart with all the major. And so I don't tell you he's teaching his son about life. Choose the right path. Choose the right path. Burn, burn, burn, burn. What he's saying is he's saying that you've got to be really careful with your heart. Wisdom teaches us to be really careful with what we want, with what we think. So I've got to take take care of my heart and wisdom says you don't do that, you don't take care of your heart, you don't think about what you want. You don't think about the decisions you're making. You don't think about your attitude. You're going to go down the dark path. So. Wisdom keeps you out of trouble. But it's hard work to stay in there. You have to choose the right path, you have to be wise and and decide which party you're going to like, which God you love to sing in and find God. And wisdom shows us which way to go. You have to choose which one. So you can listen to wisdom. Yes. Because it over here saying go this way, this way. And fools are saying no, let's go this way. You got to listen. You've got to pay attention. And how do you begin. We just begin. You've got to take steps. You've got to get going and you'll learn as you go. Now, the wonderful thing is we're here to do it together and we can learn together as we go. How about we pray and ask God to help us find that I'm good, OK? Father, thank you for giving us wisdom, teach us to protect wisdom in our hearts, help us to protect our hearts from evil desires. We want what's good and we ask that you would keep us safe. You'd show us the right way to go. If there are a lot of paths to choose, there are all sorts of things that want to get our attention and pull us away from you, Father, but we're going to hold on to you and please hold on to us. Be with Amos and Linden as they grow. That was all to grow together as you keep us safe in your will and in your wisdom. In Jesus name, we pray in. Well, thank you for joining Lyndon and Amos and me for that conversation. Wisdom promises some amazing blessings. When you live with wisdom, it leads to good things and there are many paths that present themselves in our lives. But one path is the path that will lead us to the blessings that God wants to give us. So where will following God take you? Where will it take your family? Maybe a conversation that you and your family can have is about where you're going as a family. What good things will you be doing as you obey God together? Now, parents, there are two things that I want to talk with you about here from this discussion that we have with Linda and Amos. The first is how do you start family worship time? And there's some instruction here for us in Proverbs four. I've talked so often with family is I have a hard time getting going. How do you do this? What you do with your family is going to look different than what I do with my family, and it's going to look different than what someone else does with their family. And that's OK. But how do you start? Well, Proverbs four, verse five, get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget. Do not turn away from the words in my mouth. Notice in verse seven, the beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom and whatever you get, get inside. I think we can echo that idea when we talk about how do I start? You just do you just get at it. Maybe you've been going at family worship time for a little while. You've been trying to incorporate family Bible reading and it's been difficult. Just keep at it. Just keep going. Or maybe you've never started. You're not sure how to do it. Just do it. Just do it. You'll find out what works for you. You'll change it. You'll do it better than I'm doing here. And I hope you do. There are a lot of ways to improve on this, so just get at it. The second thing that I want to talk with you about from today's episode is one of the beautiful things that showcased here. When you make regular Bible reading a part of your family time together, you're introducing a common language to your family. There are phrases that we use around our home all the time. There are things like, Captain, your ship or mind your heart or watch your feet. We use phrases like that in our home and it connects back to teaching that we introduced a lot of times during these family devotions. When you make that regular family worship a part of your time together as a family, then then you're building layers of language so that later as you're having conversations, as you're needing to make a correction, as you're reminding your children about who you are, as God's people, you can pull up those phrases. And Amos here latched on to a phrase that we use, and that is this path image. When you're teaching God's word, use the imagery that's here and plant those images in their heads and they'll stay with them. They'll stick even at times when you you don't think they're sticking. They will if you just keep applying it. So you keep up with those regular times of worship and it'll show up in the more you make that time together priority, the more you'll share that common language that is biblical, godly and wise. Next time we'll get together with, well, the whole family. As we talk about Proverbs Chapter five as we discuss the forbidden woman.