My pastor this morning preached on being excellent in your work. It reminded me of one proverb my father passed on in the form of, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right." There's also I another proverb I heard on his lips more rarely, "Good enough for who it's for."
The great thing about proverbs is, as I think Steve Lennox has said, sometimes they're true. And of course, sometimes they don't apply. Wisdom is knowing when to apply which or even when to preach which. One day begs for the call to perfection. Another begs for preaching against perfectionism.
It might be nice to preach some proverbs in pairs, two point sermons. Point 1 gives the one side and point 2 the other. Both are true.
Discernment is knowing when to use which...
Showing posts with label proverbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proverbs. Show all posts
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Thursday, December 18, 2008
"Spare the rod and spoil the child..."
Stupid me, I had always assumed this was the wording of a verse from the King James in Proverbs. Turns out it comes from a 1664 poem by Samuel Butler. Ha!
There are verses in Proverbs that map to it, however: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell" (Proverbs 23:13-14).
Of course as Christians we would take from this verse the importance of correction and guiding your children. I think we as Christians would reject beating our children to the extent this verse probably pictures as contrary to the values of Christ in the same way that we do not stone adulterers or practicing homosexuals. The love commandment of Christ filters everything (as exemplified in Matthew 5's filtering of the OT law), and it would seem impossible to do these things in love.
[As a P.S., I might also add that the Hebrew for "hell" here is Sheol, which referred generically to death rather than to a firey place of torment. The OT has no concept of the Christian hell.]
What is also interesting to me is that this section of Proverbs actually was borrowed from the older Egyptian wisdom literature of Amenemope. That doesn't affect its Scriptural-ness, since it is in the canon. But it does speak to the need to read the Bible with the recognition that some passages do not play out in our world the way they did in other times and places.
There are verses in Proverbs that map to it, however: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell" (Proverbs 23:13-14).
Of course as Christians we would take from this verse the importance of correction and guiding your children. I think we as Christians would reject beating our children to the extent this verse probably pictures as contrary to the values of Christ in the same way that we do not stone adulterers or practicing homosexuals. The love commandment of Christ filters everything (as exemplified in Matthew 5's filtering of the OT law), and it would seem impossible to do these things in love.
[As a P.S., I might also add that the Hebrew for "hell" here is Sheol, which referred generically to death rather than to a firey place of torment. The OT has no concept of the Christian hell.]
What is also interesting to me is that this section of Proverbs actually was borrowed from the older Egyptian wisdom literature of Amenemope. That doesn't affect its Scriptural-ness, since it is in the canon. But it does speak to the need to read the Bible with the recognition that some passages do not play out in our world the way they did in other times and places.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Three Proverbs for the Day
I know I have some personality quirks. I won't share if you haven't noticed them. But there are also some things I think I get, too. I think I know when to shut up and when I'm bugging other people. I think I know when I'm rationalizing. I think I know when I'm presuming on other people or when I need just to say thank you and take a gift.
I know there are areas where I just don't get it--my friends and family could easily point these personality blind spots. By the same token, it's hard to watch other people be, well, stupid in their interpersonal relationships in areas where the right mannerism or course of action seems obvious to me.
Then there are children. I quickly looked for that book Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned in Kindergarten. What a great book! Share your toys, etc. Frankly, most people need to learn these things far more than to learn algebra. Reading and writing is important. But I would put basic interpersonal skills on a par with them. More people will grow up to be murderers than will ever use algebra in real life.
Don't get me started on how inefficient and ineffective I think the current American educational system is!
Anyway, I was trying to give my children some pointers on basic stuff today. If IWU has a seminary, there will be stuff in a congregational relationships course from people who know these things on an expert level. But today I offer these three basics in the form of American proverbs.
1. Winners train; losers complain.
For some reason people think that making excuses somehow changes things. The past is the past. It can't be changed. Maybe you have an explanation why it didn't go your way. Someone else didn't need an explanation because it went their way. They won; you lost. Get over yourself. Complaining is the sign of a loser. You weren't the best that time.
2. Shake it off.
Get up. Don't just lie there. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." "There's no crying over spilt milk." "It's water under the bridge." Shake it off and try again. Don't be a quitter. "You'll show them next time"... or the next time or the next time. Or at some point admit that they're better than you at x, y, or z.
3. Put up or shut up.
People who are the best don't need to tell anyone that they're the best. They know they're the best and others tell them so because they're the best. Bragging is a sign that you aren't actually as good as you're saying you are. "Pride goes before a fall." "The tallest nail is the first to get hit."
Or my own motto--"The truth doesn't care." It doesn't care about excuses or what people think. "It is what it is."
I know there are areas where I just don't get it--my friends and family could easily point these personality blind spots. By the same token, it's hard to watch other people be, well, stupid in their interpersonal relationships in areas where the right mannerism or course of action seems obvious to me.
Then there are children. I quickly looked for that book Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned in Kindergarten. What a great book! Share your toys, etc. Frankly, most people need to learn these things far more than to learn algebra. Reading and writing is important. But I would put basic interpersonal skills on a par with them. More people will grow up to be murderers than will ever use algebra in real life.
Don't get me started on how inefficient and ineffective I think the current American educational system is!
Anyway, I was trying to give my children some pointers on basic stuff today. If IWU has a seminary, there will be stuff in a congregational relationships course from people who know these things on an expert level. But today I offer these three basics in the form of American proverbs.
1. Winners train; losers complain.
For some reason people think that making excuses somehow changes things. The past is the past. It can't be changed. Maybe you have an explanation why it didn't go your way. Someone else didn't need an explanation because it went their way. They won; you lost. Get over yourself. Complaining is the sign of a loser. You weren't the best that time.
2. Shake it off.
Get up. Don't just lie there. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." "There's no crying over spilt milk." "It's water under the bridge." Shake it off and try again. Don't be a quitter. "You'll show them next time"... or the next time or the next time. Or at some point admit that they're better than you at x, y, or z.
3. Put up or shut up.
People who are the best don't need to tell anyone that they're the best. They know they're the best and others tell them so because they're the best. Bragging is a sign that you aren't actually as good as you're saying you are. "Pride goes before a fall." "The tallest nail is the first to get hit."
Or my own motto--"The truth doesn't care." It doesn't care about excuses or what people think. "It is what it is."
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