Reverence for the LORD is an education in itself. You must be humble before you can ever receive honors. (Proverbs 1533)
Take God out of the equation and what you have left is chaos and disorderliness. Imagine a situation in this world where morals are relative to the individual’s knowledge and sense of what is good and evil. That is, what I regard as ‘sin’ may be ‘good’ for you. Someone has not had any food to eat for a whole day; therefore, he steals a bar of chocolate at the mall. Justifiable, right? You rationalize it thus- the guy probably doesn’t have a job else he would have had money to provide himself food, therefore, picking a chocolate bar out of thousands to satisfy his hunger isn’t wrong. Besides, the management of the mall makes exorbitant profits on a daily basis and this little bar of chocolates is less than ten pennies. When everyone becomes a law for himself there’s bound to be friction and infringement on the rights of other people because the nature of man is intrinsically selfish- self preservation is the name of the game!
However, God did not design us so; His plan for humanity right from Eden was for man to be dependent upon Him for the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Adam & Eve’s desire in partaking of the fruit was to be able to have knowledge of what is good and what is evil by themselves without relying on God.
Having established that the responsibility for guarding the hearts of our children at the early formative stages of their lives is in the hands of the parents; I want to direct our hearts to the corner-stone for shaping the heart of your child.
If you miss this, the basis for your instruction, nurture and admonition will be warped and the results will not be desirable. Don’t just hand down instructions to your children which MUST be obeyed BECAUSE YOU SAID SO.
Rather, steer their hearts and young, impressionable minds towards the fear of the Lord as many versions put our key-verse for today. The fear of the Lord does not mean a morbid dread of punishment or trepidation at the mention of God, but a reverence for Him that is borne out of love and adoration for who God is and What He’s done for humanity.
Reverence for God is said to be an education in itself because, it is a well-spring from which good, godly attributes are generated. If you make reverence for God the cornerstone for your home, the task of shaping the future of your children becomes an easy one because they have a reason for their actions which goes beyond the unbreakable codes given by Dad, Mum or the fear of punishment.
To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the LORD. Stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn (Proverbs 17)
*Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible
– Dr ifelayo ojo
