I love it when the birthday of my family falls on my regularly scheduled blog days of Tuesday and Thursday. They deserve more than a blog post, but I love taking time to make a point about how to Live Well through them.
Dad hits 76 today. Wow! That’s a lot of years and a lot of wisdom. He’s a young 76 which is good for me as I cherish every chance I get to hang out with him, soaking up more wisdom for my life. Dad has long dispensed with his wisdom and insights, and he is a very big reason I am the way I am (or someone to blame, I guess, if you don’t like what you get from me). 🙂
The book of Proverbs has a wonderful start where Solomon, as the father, tells his son about wisdom, about the path to Live Well.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair–every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
It was my great fortune (and my sister) to have Dad model this for us, both in the how he lives and how he instructed us to live. We took time to put the Bible into our lives, with both sis and I memorizing the Bible in youth contests with our church. As we went through all the normal challenges of teen life, we were reminded often about how to avoid “the ways of wicked men” and instead stay on “the ways of good men.”
Today, as I head into my 50th year, I have lived my life with one deep passion….to be known as a man of God, as someone who walks with God. That passion and effort on my part was started in my childhood with how my Dad (along with Mom) raised me. I am so thankful for his impact on my life, both then and now.
Have a very happy birthday Dad!