Proverbs 16:11  This is an interesting verse that we need to investigate.  A word that we need to look at carefully is the word just.  Just means fair or true.  How would you like to buy a bag of chocolate that had printed on the outside "12 ounces".  But after you bought it and picked it up, it felt a little light to you.  So after you get home you get out your mother's Weight Watcher's food scale and actually weigh the candy.  To your surprise it weighs only 10 ounces!  Would you feel cheated?  Would you be mad at the company who sold the chocolate and lied about how much was in the bag?  That is because your mother's weighing scale is just and the company's bag is unjust.  Back in Solomon's day, the merchants used a balance scale.  When it was empty, the balance scale was perfectly balanced.  Then the merchant would put a one pound weight on one side and then start putting, say, fish in the other side until the scale once again balanced.  The buyer knew that he was buying one pound of fish.  That is if the merchant's one pound weight was a full one pound.  If the merchant had a weight that said it was one pound on the side of it, it should actually be one pound.  But sometimes crooked merchants would have true weights along with false weights in their bags.  The merchant would use the just weight to convince buyers that he was just and fair.  Then he would switch weights and use the lighter, cheating weight.  The merchant would be cheating the buyer, but the buyer wouldn't even know it.  But God would know it.  That is because God sees and knows everything.  When you think no one is looking, they might not be.  But God is.  When you think you got away with something, may be you did.  But not quite.  Although no one caught you, God saw it.  And God remembers. Later when we need a favor from God, and we ask Him in prayer, suddenly we remember our sneakiness and we remember that God remembers too.  So don't cheat.  Don't be sneaky.  Be honest.  After all God knows everything anyway.  Live a just life and never be afraid to come to God.  He loves you and wants only what is best for you.

Read Proverbs 16:8  Our verse uses the word revenue.  Revenue means income or money that you make from your job or from your work.  Back in Solomon's day, people made money from their crops and flocks.  They planted five baskets of wheat and harvested two hundred baskets in return.  That is good revenue.  They had fifty sheep and their sheep had little lambs in the spring and the flock increased to eighty sheep.  That was pretty good revenue.  A wealthy man invested five hundred shekels with a ship captain whose ship was sailing to Arabia.  The ship returned five months later with a cargo of spices and silk and the captain gave the investor two thousand shekels for his risk.  That was good revenue.  Solomon said in our verse that it would be better to have just a little of money with a clean conscience towards God that have a lot of money that had been gotten through crooked ways.  It is better to work honestly for your money than to get a lot of money from selling drugs.  When you get your money the right way, you can sleep well at night and you don't have to worry about someone driving by and shooting up your house because of a drug deal that goes wrong.  Earn money the honest way and God will bless you and you will have peace of mind.  It is not how much money you have, but how you can enjoy the money that you do have.  That is called contentment.  When you work hard, the money that you get is exactly the amount of money that God wants you to have.  And that is enough.  It is all that you need.  After all, God knows what we need and gives us just enough!  He is faithful.

Read Proverbs 16:3  Have you ever thought a naughty thought?  Of course you have.  We all think bad thoughts.  But it is hard to get bad thoughts out of your head.  Let's try something: do not think about the color "blue".  That is the first thing that you think about, isn't it?  Even though you don't want to, you just think about the wrong things.  "So, how do I think the right thoughts?" you ask.  Our verse tells us.  If you keep on doing the right things, eventually you will think the right things.  If you think about being angry with your sister or brother; if you think about talking back to your mother; if you grumble because you don't get your way; all of those will make you think bad thoughts.  But if you make yourself be helpful to your brother or sister; if you make yourself be helpful to your mother; if you make yourself play what your friend wants to play, well pretty soon you will be thinking good thoughts.  Here is the formula for thinking good thoughts.  It is found in our verse.  Do the right things and pretty soon you will be thinking the right thoughts.  Our actions will produce our thoughts.

Read Proverbs 16:7  Think of all of the people that you know.  You can't make everyone happy all at the same time.  So, who is the one person who you should please?  That was a trick question, because we should please the Lord first of all.  May be you did say, "God".  If you did, you got the answer right!  We should try to please the Lord first of all.  Our verse tells us that if we please God first, everything else will fall into place.  If we put God first, God will take care of us and will smooth everything out and make our way go better.  Our verse says that if we put God first, even our enemies will be at peace with us!  That is a pretty good promise, isn't it?  Do you want to be happy?  Do you want a peaceful life?  Then please God.  He can take care of us if we take care of Him.

Read Proverbs 15:33  Our verse tells us how to get wisdom and honor.  These are both good things to have.  We like to be smart and we like other people to think that we are smart.  That is wisdom and honor.  Our verse says that the way to get wisdom is to fear God.  To fear God doesn't only mean to be afraid of God - it means to respect God.  You are afraid not to obey God.  You are afraid to displease God because He sees and knows everything.  And the way to get honor is to begin with humility.  Today I went to Chick fil-A for breakfast.  No surprise.  When I drove in, the manager was out in the parking lot picking up trash.  He could have made one of his employees pick up the trash, but they were busy with customers inside.  He was the boss, but he was not too good to bend down and to pick up trash.  He had the right attitude.  He had humility and he had honor.  Let's have the right attitude.  Let's respect God and get wisdom and let's be humble and get honor.

Read Proverbs 15: 32  Some people never think that they are wrong.  When someone corrects them they are defensive.  Do you know what defensive means?  Defensive means that you think that others are picking on you.  May be your mother says, "Someone left the garage door open."  A defensive person will quickly say, "It wasn't me!  I didn't do it!"  Your mother may reply, "I wasn't accusing you.  I just said that someone left the door open."  There is a joke that a defensive person who went to a football game saw the team in a huddle down on the football field.  They said, "I think those football players are down there in that huddle talking about me."  Ha, ha!  I think that we have seen several times in Proverbs that it is good to take advice.  It is good to listen to others who are older and wiser that you are.  Our verse says that someone who refuses to listen to instruction hates his own soul.  You are actually hurting yourself if you do not listen to wise people.  The last half of our verse turns the words around and says that if you do listen to advice, you get understanding.  Let me put it this way: if you listen to advice, you get smarter.  If you ignore advice, you get dumber.  Pretty simple,  isn't it?

Proverbs 15:17

Read Proverbs 15:17  Our verse is a lot like yesterdays verse.  Solomon is playing a game with us here in our verse for today.  He is giving us choices.  Let's play Solomon's game: at your house, would you rather have love or hatred?  That is pretty easy - we all want love.  Would you rather have a dinner of just vegetables or a steak dinner?  Again, the choice is pretty easy  - we would love a steak dinner.  But here is where Solomon's questions get a little tricky: would you want a steak dinner in a house filled with hatred, or a dinner of just vegetables in a house filled with love?  Most of us would choose the house filled with love.  That is because love in our home is so important.  I hope you have love in your home.  And really, whether you have love in your house or not, it is actually up to you!  Think about it.

Proverbs 15:16

Read Proverbs 15:16  All throughout your life you will have choices to make. You can choose to save your money, or you can buy stuff with it.  But if you choose to buy stuff, you will spend your money and not have it.  You can either have stuff or have money.  It is your choice, but you can't have both.  Our verse says that it is better to have God and not much stuff, than to have a lot of stuff and not to have God.  Of course it would be great to have God and a lot of stuff!  But our verse kind of means that people may cheat and be crooked to get all of their stuff.  Then they will have the stuff, but feel guilty because they got their stuff the wrong way. Our verse tells us that it is better to have just enough to get by with God's blessings on our lives than to cheat and steal and get a lot of stuff and not to have God's blessings.  I want God's blessings on my life, don't you?

Proverbs 15:13

Read Proverbs 15:13  Our verse has a new word in it that we need to know.  The word is countenance.  Your countenance is how you look.  Let's try to make a sad face.  Now try a puzzled face.  Now each one of you try to make a face and see if everyone else can guess what it is.  Don't try to trick them - try to get everyone to guess what is in your heart right away.  How did you do?  Our verse says that when we have a merry heart - a heart that is happy - we will show it on the outside.  If we are sad on the inside, we will look sad on our face.  If we are happy on the inside, we will show happiness on our face.  Show what is in your heart - show the happiness of God!

Proverbs 15:8

Read Proverbs 15:8  Today, when we do something naughty we pray to the Lord to get forgiveness.  But back during the Old Testament times the Israelites had to go to the Temple in Jerusalem and offer a sacrifice to get forgiveness for their sins.  Wealthy people like Solomon would offer a large animal like a bullock as a sacrifice.  Most people offered a lamb.  Poor people could even offer just a dove.  God made it so that everyone could afford to get forgiven of their sins.  But all of these were to get forgiveness for sins after they did them.  Someone who was wicked might think, "I am going to steal this gold and silver, so I'll just offer a little dove to God and get forgiven of my sin."  But, God doesn't work that way.  God knows the heart.  He knows what the wicked man is thinking.  God knows that the wicked man isn't really sorry for his stealing - he is just doing what God said to do without being sorry for what he has done.  Our verse says that God is smarter than that.  When the wicked man tries to trick God with a sacrifice, God doesn't fall for his trick.  Our verse says that God is disgusted with the wicked man's sacrifice.  But when someone is really sorry for his sin and prays to God, well God loves that prayer.  Our verse says that God delights in the good man's prayer.  The word delight is a great word and means that God really, really, really loves to hear that prayer.  When the girl at McDonald's gives you a really extra large ice cream cone, you are delighted.  When you pray to your Father up in heaven and confess your sins, He is delighted.  Isn't it good to make God happy!

Proverbs 15:5

Read Proverbs 15:5  When someone tells you that you are wrong, what do you think?  Do you get mad at them?  What if it is your father who tells you that you are wrong?  You don’t talk back to him.  But you do feel mad inside.  But usually, when your father tells you that you are wrong, he is just trying to help you.  He is just trying to correct you so that you won’t look bad.  So our verse today is not really talking about what your father is saying; it is talking about your reaction to what your father is saying.  Our verse says that if you hate your father’s correction, you are a fool.  You are crazy.  Our verse says that if you listen to your father’s correction, you are prudent.  You are wise.  If you listen to others who are older than you are, you are wise.  If you go your own way and don’t listen to advice from older people, you are not very smart.  Listen.  Think.  Become smarter!