Father–son Talks

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

Mark Twain is given credit for the following remark: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” If that was a true record of a young man’s awakening to wisdom, Mark Twain would not be the first to whom it happened. Many a young man has listened to advice from his father and discounted it—until the day he needed it. Then it turned out to be more wisdom than advice.

One of the oldest father–son talks in history is recorded in the book of Proverbs. Solomon, the world’s wisest man in his day (and likely in ours), used his throne as king of Israel to dispense his wise sayings to his subjects and to those who came from afar to sit at his feet and learn. Solomon was known throughout the surrounding nations for possessing uncanny wisdom, discernment, and insight.

The principles of wisdom will work for anyone who puts them to use. But it is only those who fear the Lord who will want to practice them over a lifetime.