Proverbs 14:4  Have you ever been in a barn where several animals are kept?  It stinks, doesn’t it?  Our verse for today talks about cow manure and the mess that animals make.  Back in Solomon’s day, they didn’t have tractors.  They had oxen to pull their wagons and plows and to do all of the heavy work.  Oxen were powerful animals that were able to haul more than many men could carry.  But they were messy.  The room in the barn where the oxen were kept was called the crib.  The farmers threw straw on the dirt floor to absorb the manure and the urine (pooh and pee) and once a day they would muck the crib (shovel out the manure covered straw).  We sure are learning a bunch nasty of farmer words today!  In our verse for today, Solomon is saying that we have two choices: we can have no smell and mess in our clean barn or we can have a messy, smelly barn where powerful oxen stay, who get a lot of work done.  We like the work that the oxen do, but the smell and the mess come with them.  It's like the cause and effect we talked about yesterday.  That is the way it is with life: you have to take the bad with the good.  Solomon is reminding us that if we want to get work done, we just have to put up with the smelly mess.  Just remember, after you work hard and get real dirty, you can always clean up and look good again.  I like to work hard, get sweaty and dirty, and then throw those dirty clothes in the hamper and take a refreshing shower.  Then I feel nice and clean.  And I feel good inside because I have gotten a lot of work done.  But then there are those smelly work clothes in the hamper.  More work to do – laundry work!

Read Proverbs 13:24  This is a verse that you don’t want me to talk about.  This is a verse that you wish I wouldn’t even mention.  But here it is, right here in the Bible.  Some parents say, “I never spank my child.  I love them too much to spank them.”  But I want to say to those people, “Can I shake your hand?  I want to touch someone who knows more about raising children that God does.”  I know I am silly, but God knows how to raise children better than I do.  And when God says that we should spank our children when they are naughty, we should do it.  We should spank our children, not because we are mad at them.  We should not spank our children because we like to beat up on them.  We should spank our children so that they will learn not to do certain things.  Children need to know that they will be punished when they do wrong things.  There is a Bible principle of cause and effect.  What that means is that when we do something, something else will automatically happen after it.  Fort example, when you start a fire, it will burn something.  When you are mean, you will not have any friends.  When you do not do your schoolwork, you don’t learn.  When you don’t save your money, you won’t have any money later when you need it.  These are all cause and effects.  When you do naughty things when you are little, you get a spanking.  And you learn cause and effect when you are little.  So when you get older and the speed limit sign says 55, you know you will get into trouble if you go 65.  You learned cause and effect when you were little.  If the sign says handicapped parking, you know not to park there or you’ll get a ticket.  You learned cause and effect when you were little.  You learned cause and effect by getting a spanking when you were little.  So you see, spankings are good.  They may hurt us now, but they will help train us to be better people when we grow up.  God always knows what is best and tells us how to live our lives in His Bible.  Even our verse for today!

Proverbs 13:22  What do people say about you when you aren’t there?  Do they say nice things about you when you have left the room?  Do they say things like, “He sure is kind and helpful.”  Do they say, “I sure do miss her when she isn’t here.  I miss her sunny smile and pleasant attitude.”  Now let’s think of something a little more serious: what are people going to say when you are gone on to heaven?  I know you are young, but what about those of us who are old?  Will they say, “I sure do miss Granddaddy.”  Or will they say, “Hey, what about that grumpy old guy.  I haven’t thought of him in quite a while.”  What people say about us is called our legacy; it is our remembrance; it is the inheritance that we leave for our grandchildren.  Our verse says that we should leave an inheritance for our grandchildren.  That is talking about leaving them money.  But it is also talking about leaving them a good remembrance and a good family name.  When someone says our name after we have died and gone on, will they say, “He was a good Christian man.  I know that God is real because Granddaddy talked with Him all the time.”  Or when someone says our name, will they say, “That old man said that he loved God, but I never was sure that he really did.”  And the last half of our verse ties in with the first half.  At the end of time, Jesus Christ will come back to earth, not as a baby like He did the first time, but as a triumphant king.  He will come back with a sword riding on a powerful white horse.  And we who have died and gone on will be coming back with Him to rule on the earth with Jesus.  Those who never believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior will die and leave all of their stuff behind.  Those of us who do believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior will come back to earth and all of that stuff will be ours.  The wicked will not be there to enjoy everything that they saved up.  We will!  Isn’t God good?  Won’t it be wonderful to live with Him forever and forever?  Trust Jesus as your Savior, and you will!

Read Proverbs 13:18  Our verse for today is like our verse yesterday.  But our verse today goes a little further.  It gives us a picture of a bratty little kid - when they grow up.  You see, when a little brat grows up, they become a big brat.  When a selfish little kid grows up, he becomes a selfish adult.  He becomes a driver who runs others off the road with his car and takes up two parking spaces at the parking lot.  When a bratty little kid, who doesn’t clean up his room when he is told to, grows up, they become an adult who doesn’t listen to their boss.  Their desk is always messy and they never seem to be able to find those important papers when they need to.  They get fired, and lose everything they have.  Because they didn’t learn to listen when they were young, they become poor and can’t keep a job when they grow up.  So, we need to learn to listen when we are young so that we grow up, we will be in the habit of listening.  Obey now and learn good habits.

Read Proverbs 13:15  Have you ever noticed that some people just don’t get it?  Some people are going on with what they are doing and they just don’t seem to realize what is going on with the rest of the world.  For instance, it may be time to get ready to go to church, and their mother says, “Okay, you have to put your toys away and get dressed for church.”  But they just don’t seem to get it.  They don’t realize that their mother is serious.  They just keep going on with what they are doing and ignore their mother’s directions.  It is getting later and later, but they just don’t seem to realize what is going on.  Their mother gets ready, she irons their father’s shirt, she gets stuff ready for Sunday school, and after some time, she comes back to see how they are doing.  But nothing has changed.  They are still playing with their toys.  Their clothes are still lying on the bed; their toys are still strewn about; they have done nothing to obey.  They just don’t get it.  And when their mother gets upset and handles them roughly and puts their clothes on them like she would a little child, they still don’t get it.  “Why is Mom so upset?” they think.  “Why is she acting so mean to me?” they say to themselves.  They don’t realize that their actions – or their lack of action – have made their mother act the way that she is acting.  As our verse says, good understanding gives favor.  If they listen, and get ready when they are told to, and put away most of their toys, they could go right back to playing with one thing.  Then, when their mother came back into their room, she would find the room clean and them ready for church.  She would be happy with their obedience and she would be in a better mood.  She might even think that they were very mature for their age.  We need to realize that how we act is how we are treated.  The end of our verse says that the way of the transgressor is hard.  If we don’t obey; if we don’t listen; we will just get into more and more trouble.  So, if we don’t listen, things will be hard for us.  But if we listen and obey quickly, things will be much easier for us.  Everything will be better – for our families, and for us!

Read Proverbs 13:10  Our verse tells us that at the heart of all of our problems is pride.  Like yesterday, we all would like to have a million dollars and to have the biggest and best toys of everyone around.  We want others to look at our stuff and say, “Wow!  Look at all those toys that you have!”  This is the sin of pride.  In heaven back in the beginning of the world, Lucifer, the most powerful and glorious angel, was lifted up with pride.  He thought he could do God’s job just as good as God could.  His pride caused a rebellion among God’s angels with one third of them following Lucifer’s lies.  Lucifer, whose name was changed to Satan, caused Adam and Eve to disobey their loving Creator and brought sin into God’s perfect world.  And all of this was caused by pride.  Satan thought that he was too good to listen to God.  He thought he was better than God.  Actually, pride is at the heart of all of our problems in our lives as well.  We don’t like to share and get along with others.  We are selfish and want our own way.  We think that we are better than everyone else and that we should go first.  This is pride.  We would be happier if we did things God’s way.  We would be happier if we were kind and loving and unselfish.  We would be happier if we were more like God, our heavenly Father.  Let’s look for pride in our lives today, and ask God to help us to keep it out!  Ask God to help you not to be prideful.

Read Proverbs 13:4  Do you ever wish that you had a million dollars?  What would you buy if you had a million dollars?  Would you buy Legos that would fill up a whole room?  Would you buy enough Nerf ammo to shoot all day long and still never run out?  Would you buy a life-size doll house with all the furniture and clothes that would fill it up?  Would you buy a pony?  Would you buy a baby bear cub or a cute little tiger cub?  A million dollars would really make you happy, wouldn’t it?  But actually, it might not make you happy.  You might only think that a million dollars would make you happy – you don’t really know for sure.  But dreaming about having a million dollars is not the same as actually working to earn a million dollars.  That is the difference that our verse is talking about.  Everyone, including the lazy sluggard, would like to have a million dollars.  But only the hard working diligent person will actually do it!  It is good to have dreams, but it is better to work to make your dreams come true.  You can only make your dreams come true if you get busy and work on your dreams.  Be diligent and, with God’s help, make your greatest dreams come true.

Read Proverbs 13:3  Do you remember what the word keep meant in Proverbs?  The word keep is a military term and means to guard.  So our verse says that if you guard your mouth, you are guarding your life.  Our verse goes on to say that if we are careless and just say the first thing that pops into our head, we will get into trouble.  Just like the scorner that we talked about yesterday, if we say hurtful words, we are destroying friendships.  Someone may be fat or messy or late, but if we say those things out loud, we are hurting our friend.  And soon they may no longer be our friend.  We may carelessly say, “Didn’t you wear that dress last week?”  It may be that our friend doesn’t have very many dresses to wear and what we said will be embarrassing to them.  While it is true that we can’t avoid every problem, we can avoid many problems if we just watch what we say before we say it.  We need to guard our lips.  We need to keep our mouth.

Read Proverbs 13:1  Our verse talks about a wise son and a scorner.  A scorner is someone who will not listen and makes fun of good things.  Scorners laugh at dirty jokes and make fun of handicapped people.  Scorners laugh when someone spills their drink at Chick Fil-A and make fun of a baseball player who is not quite as good as they are.  When scorners make jokes about someone, others may laugh.  But the person being made fun of does not laugh.  They feel bad and are angry at the scorner.  They don’t forget and will not ever be the scorner’s friend.  Over time, the scorner makes enemies of one person after another until he doesn’t have anyone left who likes him.  He has no friends because he has made fun of everyone.  A wise son is different.  He thinks about how the other person feels before he says anything.  He thinks to himself, “Is it kind, is it true, and is it necessary to say?”  When someone spills their drink at Chick Fil-A, the scorner laughs and points at them, but the wise son runs to get napkins and helps to clean up quickly so his friend is not too embarrassed.  The friend who spilled his drink is grateful for the help and will not forget the good deed.  He will be a good friend that the wise son can count on.  So, our verse says that if we listen to instruction, we are wise, but if we ignore instruction, we are probably a scorner.  Can you think of a time recently when someone helped you out of an embarrassing situation?  Were you glad that they helped?

Read Proverbs 12:27  Our verse for today again compares a diligent man to a slothful man.  Our verse says that when the lazy man goes hunting he doesn’t even cook the meat from the animal that he has killed.  He just lets the good meat spoil and be wasted.  He has taken the time to hunt the animal, but he doesn’t finish the job.  He wastes the meat.  The diligent man, however, uses everything.  He doesn’t waste anything.  He is careful and cooks up all of the meat and puts it in his storage room for harder times.  The meat is important to him.  Our verse says that it is precious to him.  Precious means something that is special or valuable.  If you just throw your clothes on the floor of your bedroom, when you get ready for your baseball game, your uniform will be dirty.  You will just have to wear a dirty uniform to the game.  If you do not put your favorite outfit into the laundry basket, your mother cannot wash it and have it ready for you to wear for next Sunday.  Next Sunday, your favorite outfit will still be dirty and you will not be able to wear it.  So, do right.  Be prepared.  Finish the job.  Clean your room.  Put your clothes in the dirty clothes hamper.  Don’t be lazy.  Be diligent!

Read Proverbs 12:24  It seems like we have had many verses about wise people and foolish people.  But that is what fathers are constantly teaching their children:  how to be wise and how not to be foolish.  Actually, the foolish and lazy way is much easier than the wise and diligent way.  But the easiest way does not lead to success.  It leads to poverty and suffering.  Our verse uses other phrases for the diligent person and for the slothful person:  Our verse says that the diligent shall bear rule.  That means that when someone takes care of details and does a good job with things, they will be made the ruler.  They will rule over others.  But the end of our verse says that the slothful person will be under tribute.  In Solomon’s day, when a king and his army beat another country, they made them pay taxes called tribute.  So the losers were said to be put under tribute – they had to pay money to the winners.  Since a lazy person would not prepare for war, let alone fight against an enemy, they would soon be paying taxes to a king who was diligent and did prepare for war.  The lazy person enjoyed sitting around doing nothing.  He didn’t train for war.  He didn’t take the time to make bows and arrows and spears and shields.  So he was not ready to defend his family and his country against an enemy.  The slothful man, his whole family, and his whole country suffered because of his lack of preparation.  No one likes to fight a war, but if you must, at least be ready to fight the war and to win the war.  Otherwise, be ready to pay all of your money out to the ones who are ready to fight the war.

Read Proverbs 12:22  There are two opposite words here in our verse for today.  Solomon says that lying lips are an abomination.  The word abomination means something that is disgusting.  When you take out the garbage and toss the plastic bag in the big bin, the smell that comes from that big bin is an abomination.  When you are on your way to church and you see a possum that has been run over by a car, and it has flies all over it, and its guts are squished out, well that is an abomination.  You can see that God hates lying lips.  But then the second half of the verse says that people who deal truly are His delight.  Delight means pleasure.  When you come home from church and you take off your tie that has been choking your neck, well that is delight.  When you go to McDonald’s on a hot summer day and get a nice cold ice cream cone and you begin to lick around it and let the sweet melted ice cream run down your throat, well that is delight.  When you are playing baseball and it is hot and the dry, dusty wind blows in your face - when you get three outs and you come running into the dugout and get a paper cup and go to the cooler and some of that ice cold water, well that is delight.  I do not want to be an abomination to God.  I want to be His delight.  Can you think of some abominations and some delights?  Can you think of some abominations that God hates and some delights that He enjoys?

Read Proverbs 12:14  This verse is similar to yesterday’s verse. But actually, it is backwards.  The first half of the verse says that if you say good things and talk right, you will be satisfied with what you have said.  The second half of the verse says that whatever we do with our hands will come back upon us.  In other words, if we work hard with our hands, we will be rewarded with pay for our hard work.  But if we are lazy with our hands, we will also be rewarded with little pay for our work.  Well actually for our lack of work.  We may not like that, but it is fair.  Why should someone who doesn’t work hard be rewarded just the same as someone who does work hard?  Sometimes our government helps people who do not work.  That isn’t good because our government is teaching them to be lazy.  Of course, there are some people who can’t work and really do need help.  They may be sickly or blind or old or handicapped.  Our government should help them.  But someone who can work should work.  Solomon and God says that hard working people should enjoy their pay.  Lazy people should also live with what they have earned – very little or nothing.

Read Proverbs 12:11  Once again, our verse has two opposites: he who tills the land and he who follows vain people.  Tilling the land means to plow the soil and to grow crops.  Back in Solomon’s day, almost everyone was farmer.   Today many people work in factories or are salesmen or work in an office.  But we all like to eat food!   So we are really close to farmers.  Farming is hard, hot work, and Solomon said here in verse 11 that the farmer who does the hard work would be satisfied.  Be sure, no one likes to work hard.  But when you work hard and you finally see the vegetables and fruit being harvested, it is fun and rewarding.  You are satisfied.  But, if you are like the vain person, you just don’t get it.  Solomon said that you are void of understanding.  We all want to eat the vegetables and fruit, but some of us just don’t understand that we have to work in order to get to eat the vegetables and fruit.  May be we don’t have to work, but our fathers and mothers do!  They work hard at the office or the store or the greenhouse in order to buy food for us to eat.  Then our mother has to work hard to cook the food that our father has paid for.   Someday soon, we will have to be ready to do those chores in order for our family to eat.  So we should be learning to work now so that when we are grown up we will be a hard worker and not a lazy, vain person.  Learn now and be ready when you grow up!

Read Proverbs 12:10  Many of the proverbs that we read are opposites.  Sometimes we can learn something by learning what it is not.  For instance, last week I told someone that if you get to the end of Jason Court, you've gone too far.  Actually, I was telling them how not to get to my house.  I didn't live at the end of Jason Court.  But that helped them to watch out for my house before they got to the end of Jason Court. Our verse today tells us that we should take care of animals.  But then it finishes by saying that the best that the wicked people do is just cruel.  Wicked people don't take care of their animals.  Back in Solomon's day, people didn't have cars to travel around in.  They didn't have tractors to pull their plows.  They had horses and oxen to do those jobs.  So Solomon was reminding his sons that in order to take care of their fields and to pull their wagons, they would have to take care of their animals.  God has given us the responsibility of ruling over the animal kingdom.  Animals were given to mankind by God to use - but not abuse.  But animals are not like people.  People have an eternal soul and are made in the image of God.  Animals were given to us to use for working the fields, for pulling our wagons, for meat, for eggs, for milk, and for friendship.  We use our animals and we like our animals. But it is our God-given responsibility to take care of our animals.  Animals that we use on the farm or at our house are not able to take care of themselves.  Cow can eat grass on their own, but they can't turn on the water hose to get water for their water trough.  They can't open the latch to their gate to get out.  They need their farmer to take care of them.  Our pets need us to feed them and to keep them warm and dry.  In our day, if a man doesn't take care of his truck or tractor, he isn't a very smart farmer.  In Bible times, a farmer who didn't feed and water his horse and oxen, wasn't a very smart farmer.  Our animals take care of us - we should take care of them.  And that is our God-given responsibility. 

Read Proverbs 11:24-26  These three verses talk about having things and about money and wealth.  Today your Dad works a job and gets paid in money.  Back in the days of Solomon, most people were farmers and didn't have very much money.  But they did have many cows and goats and sheep.  They had huge fields of wheat and barley.  They had fields of hay to cut for the winter and meadows for their animals to graze on in the summer.  They had wealth, but it wasn't in the form of money.  Verses 25 and 26 tell the lesson of a man who is generous and gives to the poor people in his community.  Verse 25 says that the Lord will bless that generous person and will help him because he is generous to the poor people. Verse 26 says that when hard times come, the generous man will sell some of his corn to the poor people who have run out of their own corn that they stored up.  If the wealthy man keeps all of his corn to himself, the poor people will hate him.  He has plenty but won't sell to them when they need it.  Because of these attitudes, God says in verse 24 that He will bless the wealthy man who is generous but will let problems come to the man who is stingy and keeps all of his stuff for himself.  God says in verse 24 that when the wealthy man sells his extra corn to the poor, that he still will not run out of corn.  God will make sure that the generous man has enough corn to last.  But the stingy wealthy man who keeps all of his corn to himself and won't sell to the poor when they need it, God will make sure that his corn runs out no matter how much he has saved up.  God will bless generosity and punish greediness.  God takes care of the poor and blesses people who take care of the poor.  When Oma and Opa help the poor in Haiti, God has promised to bless them.  God wants us to be his hands here on earth and to do what God would do if He were here.  Let's do God's work and be His people!

Read Proverbs 11:22  This is a funny verse.  It shows is a word picture that is totally unexpected.  You expect to see a pretty earring in a girl's ear, but our verse shows us a picture of a gold ring in a pig's snout!  That is totally unexpected!  You never expect to see a beautiful ring in an ugly pig's nose!  Which brings us to the second part of the verse.  Just like you never expect to see a gold ring in a pig's snout, you never expect to see a pretty girl not being a proper young lady.  You never expect to see a girl telling a lie.  You never expect to see a girl being loud and noisy.  You never expect to see a girl embarrassing her parents.  You don't expect to see a girl acting like a boy.  These things just aren't expected - just like you don't expect to see a pig with a gold ring in its nose.  Girls: think and act right.  Don't act silly or rude or nasty or mean.  Don't act out of place like a gold ring in a pig's snout!

Read Proverbs 11:14  Sometimes we may think that we have a good idea.  We think that we are going to do something that will turn out great.  But after we tell our idea to someone else, they may think of something that we haven't thought of.  Suddenly, our great idea is not so great because we have not thought of everything.  Our verse says that it is good to have several people to talk about an idea so that they can think of all the different points that are good and the points that are bad.  Our verse for today says that when we have many counselors we will not make a mistake.  When I get ready to build something, I ask my builder friend what he thinks of my idea.  When I get ready to go on a mission trip, I ask my preacher friend what he thinks about my plans.  When I get ready to buy something for our house, I ask my wife what she thinks first.  If we ask other people about our ideas first, we will not make mistakes in our decisions.  Ask someone who is smart in that area before you do something.  Then you won't have to go back and change your mind and straighten out a mistake.  Get advice before you so something!

Read Proverbs 11:13  This is the first of  five times in Proverbs that Solomon talks about a talebearer.  The word talebearer is a two-part word.  A tale is something that has a bit of the truth in it, but it is exaggerated.  A tale is more than the truth.  But something that is more than the truth is not the truth - it is a lie!  For example, we may come running into the house and tell our mother that there is this huge dog outside.  Mother may say, "Huge?  How big is huge?"  That is when we are tempted to tell a tall tale.  We are tempted to say, "It's as big as a bear!"  Uh Oh!  We've just told a tall tale - we've told a whopper of a tall tale.  The second half of our two-part word is bearer.  A talebearer is someone who bears, or caries the whopper of a tale.  So a talebearer is someone who takes the truth that is stretched into a lie and then tells it to other people in order to make the talebearer seem more important than they really are.  The talebearer mentioned in Proverbs 18:8 and 26:22 is described as carrying words that wound down into the belly.  Have you ever been sick to your stomach?  Solomon says that these evil words that the talebearer uses are like a deep cut right down in your stomach.  That would really hurt, wouldn't it?  Then in Proverbs 20:19 the talebearer is said to use flattering lips to trick you.  Flattering means to say nice things about you that make you feel great about yourself - except flattering words are just a trick to make you like the person who is flattering you.  You don't realize that the flatterer is lying about you.  He is using false words to trick you into liking him, even though you really know he is lying.  Because he is saying nice things about you, you kind of forget that he is lying.  You even like his lying because it is lying about how nice you are!  In Proverbs 26:20 a talebearer is compared to a fire.  Talebearers like to go around to different friends and spread lies about each of them to the other friend.  The friends get mad at each other, but seem to like only the talebearer because the talebearer never says anything bad about himself!  This verse says that the talebearer is like building a fire.  If you don't put more wood onto a fire, it soon goes out.  If the friends would not listen to the lies of the talebearer they would still be friends. Back to Proverbs 11:13: a person who is of a faithful spirit hides something that is not very good.  Don't tell stories about your friends just to hurt their feelings.  Look out for your friends - don't embarrass them - don't be a talebearer.

Read Proverbs 11:1  Back in Bible times the farmers at the market had a balance scale that they used to weigh out their vegetables.  A balance scale is a bar with a balancing rope in the middle with pans hanging down on each side.  When the pans are both empty, the bar is balanced.  The farmer had a one pound weight on one side and would then put vegetables on the other side until the scale again balanced.  Then the farmer and the buyer would know there was one pound of vegetables of the other end of the scale.  But if the farmer was a cheater, he might drill out the bottom of his one pound weight and make it lighter.  The buyer might think that he was buying a pound of vegetables, but he was actually getting less than a pound.  He was paying for a pound of vegetables, but was not getting what he was paying for.  He was being cheated by the unjust weight.  Unless the buyer carried around their own weights to check the weights of the farmers, they would never know that they were being cheated.  But God knew!  He saw the cheating farmer.  God knows everything!  And He keeps a record of every deed - good and bad.  God delights in just weights.  God likes honesty.

Read Proverbs 10:26  Solomon was a wise king and had many servants to do his work.  Your dad may be a boss and have many employees to help him get his work done at the company.  But Solomon said that when he sent a lazy servant out to do a job for him, it was a terrible idea.  Sluggards, or lazy people just can't get the job done.  Solomon uses two illustrations to help us to understand how hopeless it is to send a lazy person out to do a job.  Solomon first says that as vinegar is on the teeth so it is sending a sluggard on an errand.  You probably have never tasted vinegar on your teeth.  But it is kind of like eating pancakes with sweet sirup all over them and then taking a drink of sour orange juice.  It hurts your mouth, doesn't it?  That is like sending a lazy person out to do a job.  It ruins your day.  Then Solomon says that sending a sluggard out to do an errand is like smoke in your eyes.  Last Sunday evening we had a cook-out at Emmanuel Baptist Church where I had Bible school.  We had hot dogs and marshmallows that we roasted over a fire.  As I cooked my hot dog, I noticed that the smoke coming from the fire was blowing right towards me. I liked my hot dog to get cooked, but the smoke was stinging my eyes.  My eyes stung so bad that they were tearing up and I couldn't see the hot dog and I got it down in the ashes of the fire.  I had to wipe the ashes off my hot dog with a napkin, but then the napkin got stuck on the side of my hot dog.  I had a terrible time.  So it is when a boss sends a lazy person out to do a job.  It just isn't worth the effort.  Don't be a lazy person.  Work hard for your boss so that he will be proud of you.  Someday you may be a boss and will have to send people out to do work.  Don't be a sluggard.  Be a diligent worker.

Read Proverbs 10:19  Yesterday we talked about the foolish child spending all of their money and not saving for the future.  Today is similar.  Sometimes we talk too much.  Our verse for today says that when we talk and talk and talk, eventually we will say the wrong thing.  But if we talk less, we don't have that many words to be careful about.  For example, if you have several eggs in your wagon, you have to be careful and watch each of them so that they will not break.  But if you have only one egg, you can easily watch it to make sure that it doesn't break.  That is the same with our words.  Guard your words and don't say too many of them.  Save your words and you will be wise. 

Read Proverbs 10:14  This verse is very similar to one that we had earlier: it talks about the wise and the foolish person.  Wise people plan ahead, but foolish people just go on ahead with no plan or idea of what they are going to do.  They just let things happen and then try to solve the problems as they come upon them.  The wise person, however, tries to look ahead and figure out the problems that might happen in the future and plan for them. By planning ahead, they will be ready for the problems when they come.  For example, a foolish child may get some money from their grandmother for their birthday.  They are excited and spend all of the money at the candy store.  They eat all of the candy that afternoon and it is gone.  The only thing they have is a sick tummy!  The wise child also gets birthday money from Grandma and buys a birthday ice cream cone at McDonald's but then saves the rest of their birthday money.  Later that week, both the wise and the foolish kid find out that their cousin is going to an amusement park for the day.  They are invited to come along, but it will cost them about $25 for the day.  The wise child gets all excited because they already have the money saved up.  But the foolish child gets sad, because they have no money and have no idea of how they might come up with $25 so quickly.  There is no time to do any extra chores for money.  They have no plan; they have no money; they are just stuck.  So there is the problem.  We just don't know what the future holds.  We don't know what good things are ahead of us or what difficult times are ahead of us.  So, if we are wise, we will plan for whatever might be ahead of us.  But if we are foolish, we will spend everything and just wait for whatever is ahead.  I hope you are wise and begin to plan ahead.  Be wise and you will be happy.

Read Proverbs 10:12  How do you usually react when someone wrongs you?  Do you try to understand why they did what they did, or do you just get angry?  Do you think about getting even with them?  Do you say, "Well they sure must be having a bad day to do that"?  Or do you say, "They sure have the nerve!  I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"  But do we realize that it is up to us to make things get angrier, or make things calm down.  What happens after someone wrongs us is up to us.  We are the ones who decide if things get better or get worse by what we do next.  If we become angry, things only get worse.  If we try to understand and forgive the other person, things will get better.  Instead of a big blow up, we can calm down the situation with our love.  Remember, the other person may do the wrong thing, but what happens next is up to us.  Ask yourself, What Would Jesus Do?

Read Proverbs 10:7&8  These two verses are packed full of good information.  Verse seven has two opposites.  One is the just person and the other is the wicked person.  God says that people like to remember the just or good person.  But the opposite is the wicked.  God says that the memory of the wicked will rot.  Rot is a nasty word that reminds me of old wood that has been lying down in a dark, damp basement.  It hasn't been used for a long time and no one cares if it will ever be used.  The next time that the basement is cleaned out, the wood will probably be thrown away.  The wood is slimy with mold and has begun to stink.  If you would try to pick it up it is so deteriorated that it would fall apart in your hand.  It is worthless but, no one cares anything about it.  That is the picture of the memory of the wicked man.  I sure wouldn't want to be the wicked.  Verse eight has two more opposites.  One is a wise heart and the other is a prating fool.  The wise heart is wise because it receives commandments.  Most of us don't usually like commandments or rules, but as we saw yesterday, if we listen and obey, we can be taught many things.  The opposite is a prating fool.  Prating means that the fool talks on, and on, and on ... well, you get the picture.  Some people like to talk and talk, and don't seem to make very much sense.  They seem to just like to hear themselves talk.  These two opposites are a good comparison.  The only way that you can learn is to listen - like the wise heart.  You can never learn anything by talking - like the prating fool.  A good way to remember this rule is to remember that God gave you two ears and only one mouth.  Can you guess why?  I think God wants you to listen twice as much as you talk.  Uncle John used to say this poem when he was a little boy:
A wise old owl sat in an oak
The more he heard the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird.

Read Proverbs 10:4&5  When you are young, you are learning things that will help you when you grow up.  For example, if your dad does not change the oil in the car, the engine will burn up and your dad will have to buy a new car.  That will cost several thousands of dollars.  A lot of money is wasted.  So, when you are young, it is important for you to learn to feed the dog every day.  It is important for you to learn to take out the garbage every day.  It is important for you to learn to make your bed every day.  It is good to learn good habits.  Then, when you grow up, you will remember to change the oil in the car and those good habits will save you thousands of dollars!  Verse 4 tells us that if we are careless, if we deal with a slack hand, we will become poor.  But, if we are diligent, if we have learned to keep up with things when were young, we will be made rich.  If we are careless, we will have to keep buying car after car.  But if we are careful and take care of our car, it will last a long time and we will save a lot of money.  We will be made rich.  Learn good habits now so that you can be rich later!

Read Proverbs 9:7-10  Everyone makes mistakes.  No one is perfect - that is no one except Jesus Christ.  And it tells something about us when we are corrected.  Verse 7 and 8 tells us that when a scorner is corrected, he only gets mad.  But in verses 8 when a wise man is corrected, he will love you.  No one likes to be corrected, but correction is actually good for us.  When we receive correction the right way, we can change our lives and then we will be a better person.  And that is good.  But the scorner thinks that they are perfect and do not need correcting.  So when they are corrected, they just get mad.  They don't learn anything.  They only get mad.  Verse 9 explains how smart people get to be so smart.  God says that when a wise man is corrected, he will be wiser yet!  Wise people listen to correction, but rude people do not listen, they just get mad.  So they don't learn.  When someone corrects you, listen to them and thank them.  You will be a wiser person.  And God will be proud of you.  So will I.

Read Proverbs 6:23  It is easy for us to get around in the daytime.  We can see chairs and tables that we might bang our shins on.  But at night, well that is a different matter.  At night you had better have a light on or you might bang into everything.  If the electricity goes off we need to have a flashlight nearby in order to see where we are going.  If we don't, we may not be able to safely get around.  Our verse uses this illustration of light and a lamp to explain life.  Getting through life is like walking through our house.  If we have light to see things, we can go through our house just fine.  If we have direction from the Bible, God's Word, we can get through life just fine.  But if our room is dark, we may stumble on things that we cannot see.  Without God's light in our lives, our life will be dark and we may stumble on things and not be able to go safely through life.  We need God's light.  We need God's direction.  In the New Testament, Jesus said that men light a candle and put it on a candlestick in order to give light to the entire room.  Jesus is our light, and we, in turn, are God's light to the rest of the world.  God gives us light to know how to live, and we, in turn, give God's light to others!  We help God get His light out to the dark world!

Read Proverbs 6:16-19  Wow!  This is a pretty awful list of sins!  This list here in Proverbs actually is famous.  It is called The Seven Deadly Sins.  And they are pretty deadly.  Some of these sins are sins that we do, like lying lips, hands that shed innocent blood, bearing false witness when you are supposed to be telling the truth, and feet that run to do mischief.  But then some of them are hard to see.  They are sins on the inside where only God and we know.  These others are sins of how we think, like a proud look and an evil heart.  But one sin on this list doesn't seem too awfully bad.  We may wonder why it is included in the list.  But it is.  And that tells me that Solomon and God thought that this sin was a particularly bad sin.  Otherwise it wouldn't be on this list.  That sin is sowing discord among the brethren.  When one person gets between friends and tries to break up their friendship, God thinks that sin is pretty bad.  To cause problems between friends, someone may tell a lie or they may reveal a secret to one friend that makes the other friend look bad.  They may try to get one friend against the other.  Usually gossip is used.  Gossip is talking about someone behind their back.  God thinks it is evil to try to break up a friendship, no matter how it is done.  Friends are a gift from God.  We should treasure our friendships and not let a wicked person say wicked things about our friends.  Trust is much better than gossip.