Be a Story Teller - Proverbs 7

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Proverbs 7

Solomon is an amazing story teller.  Here in chapter 7 he tells a story to his sons.  A story of a man's demise.  He is sharing from his own personal storehouse of experiences to teach his child a valuable truth.


My daughter asks me to tell her stories from time to time.  And she doesn't want ANY story - she wants a story about me.  She wants to hear the stories of my life.  She desires to understand who her mother is and I'm pretty sure it's because she wants to be just like me.  


In reality, I hope she turns out a lot better than I did.  Isn't that what we all want for our kids?  We want them to be happier, healthier and wealthier than we are. But what about spiritual prowess - do we desire that our children's spiritual journey would begin at the point where ours will end?  I DO!


But I realize that ineveitably I will in some small or large way - screw it up.  I will forget, leave out or totally miss something that is essential for her spiritual life.  And somewhere along the way she will indeed come to terms with how screwed up my life actually was.  But yet - I want her to understand it.


I want her to know where I struggled.  I want her to understand why I live my life the way I do - even if It means telling her some hard things.  It means I must humble myself, break down the exterior of my heart and let her in.  I must SHARE my life with her in order to TEACH her how to be better.  


I think that Solomon was so passionate about his sons' defense against the immoral woman because he probably struggled with the very same temptation.  He may not have been visiting prostitutes left and right, but by the end of his life he even embraced other gods because of his love for the immoral, foreign women in his own household.  But by pleading with his sons to avoid the same traps, I think he was doing his best to help them to break the cycle - to NOT follow in his footsteps where he struggled.


So I pray that when the day does come when my daughter finds out I'm a complete nut-job, she will have the grace to forgive me for screwing up her life because she will at least understand WHY I am the way I am through the stories I told her and the lessons she learned from them.


And in that - she would also recognize that the Great I AM has all the healing she will need if she will yield her life to him and accept his love and salvation. Cuz heaven knows, with me as her mom, she's gonna need it.


Chapter 7 Survival Skills:
This entire chapter is TRAINING his sons to use SELF DEFENSE against the immoral woman. What do we need to TRAIN our children to AVOID using the lessons from our own lives?