Proverbs Piece Number 51 – The Wise and the Foolish Sons

“A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother.” Proverbs 10:1

Remember when your kids were four or five years old and you could see their individual personalities developing? You had one child who was always the leader, the one without fear, and another child who did not take chances because he watched what his older sibling did and learned valuable lessons.

As your children grew, you began to think what they might be when they grow up to be adults. Would the leader child be fearless in business or a renegade in some other job? Would he use his strengths for good or bad? Moreover, the child who was the follower would he be a thinker who charted his course carefully with gained knowledge?

This verse in Proverbs talks about sons and the different characteristics that appear in their personalities. The wise son makes a father glad or happy. The father is proud of the son’s accomplishments and probably brags about him often. Maybe this son is a chip off the old block and is acquiring attributes like his father.

But what about the other son, the foolish one who brings grief to his mother? How can a parent be proud of this son’s accomplishments? Often, the parent is grieved instead of proud of that son. The son’s or daughter’s actions have caused pain and heartache beyond belief. So do the parents give up on him or her? Do they throw him to the wolves to live in disgrace?

As a believing parent, the option of giving up on a child is out of the question. Hours and hours of prayer, tears, and years of pleading with God is what a parent should do. Tell some trusted friends about the situation and ask them to pray, too. There is much, much power in the prayers of God’s children. I have seen the results. I know the power of words prayed in earnest before a loving, listening, forgiving God.

Never give up. Never, never, never give up! The results you have prayed for may not happen in your lifetime, but God’s timetable needs to be played out for that son or daughter who is living in sin. They need to experience what HE has prepared for them to go through. So remember, He hears your every word and knows your deepest heartache. He knows what you pray for that child and hasn’t God told us He will give us the desires of our hearts? Turn all your children over to God, keep praying and love them with all your heart, no matter what.