The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck. Proverbs 1:7-9 NKJV

Sometimes instruction is very tough on us even if we know that people have the right heart in mind.

Anyone who has ever had tough yet dedicated parents in their lives in lifting up their “child” over the years (as in “you”) might think about them.

It is good to have parents who have the best intentions. Who hope the person in their life who they want success in life not only has knowledge but shows fear towards doing bad or having committed wrong and thinks what their parents might do to punish them. They may also hope you have that applied knowledge as a part of your own life.

But notice I said “best intentions” because I mean parents who aren’t the reflection of deep and harsh abuse. I digress so let me go back to what I said earlier.

It is actually good to fear parents who punish when you have done wrong. Or fear if they know their parents will do something that is normal in punishment if they got straight D’s or F’s in school!

I wonder if fear is something us as people had to learn after the fall: The fall of men (and through man, women).

After Adam and Eve we had to experience and still do an awful thing called Sin. Adam was completely responsible, a person to run things in life but instead of that, he chose to eat the fruit. He has had such an awful impact on this world that Eve isn’t even accounted, it seems, to sin entering the world. (“Sin entered the world through one man…” a paraphrase and part of beginning of Romans 5:12). What a sad legacy to leave the people following everyone who wants to worship something, let alone people who might have to live in God’s sight that sin is now a part of. To live for something but because of a tainted body, a sin-filled body, is now a part of people who were and are created, unfortunately.

Now that we are accountable to sin where death is spiritually an absolute for the physical body we need to fear God in order to live for goodness.

What can we do? We must follow His instruction. Either to be saved, to learn to fear Him about right and wrong, and also to live life since one day we won’t get the chance to live on in this earth but will be accountable at the end to how we have all these years lived!

That is a great reason to live for God through Christ.

And we should not forsake our parents or parent figures with good intentions’ “rules” to live life.

We must in life show love towards all people, not just the ones we already care about. Just be careful about the wicked because they have not good hearts even if we might witness or share things that are good with them with a good heart.

Here’s a partial verse, note some is paraphrased. It says basically: “Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the just; God (in His righteousness) tests the hearts and minds.” Psalms 7:9.

Let us live wholeheartedly for goodness and love in Christ. Or live for ones who are hurting and needy. Let’s live for the goodness that Is God!

Let us live to be “tested” so that we will be without blame as we live in Jesus through the Holy Spirit as new creations.

Amen!