Trash-Talking

Proverbs 13:1   A wise son listens to the discipline of his father, but a mocker doesn’t listen to correction.

I heard a pastor on the radio use this verse to build an entire sermon on how children should respect their parents. I’ve heard good Christian folk pull this one out of their back pocket during difficult times.  But, let’s break this verse down.

The wise son listens to the discipline of his father. First, I think we can exchange ‘smart’ for wise, remove son and insert ‘child’.  Now, when you first look at it, it’s pretty easy to point at this and say, “see look, if you want to be smart, you must listen to what I have to say”.  But if you stop and really think about what it’s saying, that finger should quickly start pointing back to you.  We are all God’s children and He gives us wonderful direction (discipline) in His book and in our day-to-day lives. Problem is, we may not always be listening.

Now the second part, but a mocker doesn’t listen to correction.  Mocker isn’t a word we use very often.  We might say Johnny is mocking Sue, but were not going to go to Johnny and call him a mocker, so let’s change it to trash-talker.   If you apply this as I did above, to a discussion with your child, that pointing finger is flying up quick, but you better stop it before it gets all the way up because you’re going to wind up pointing at yourself.  We’ve all been around someone who tends to degrade, make fun of, or simply dismisses what we say – a trash-talker.

So if we put it back together and change it up to fit with today’s conversations, it might sound something like… The smart or intelligent child (you me and everyone) listens to the Father about the changes we should make because if we don’t, then we’ll wind up being trash-talkers.

Hmmmm…it’s funny, if you think about it and the conversations you’ve had with God, they are eerily similar to ones we’ve had with our own children or parents. How easy is it to turn off God and not listen to His gentle course corrections? And where does that put us?  Not ‘smart’ because we wind up being the trash-talker.  Thankfully, our heavenly Father is forgiving, loving, understanding and full of grace.    All it takes is “Father, I’m sorry I’ve not listened, but I will start now. Give me open ears and an open heart to hear you.  Amen”