Read Proverbs 17:9  Have you ever had an embarrassing moment?  You felt like crawling in a hole, didn't you?  Do you remember when one of your friends had an embarrassing moment?  When a friend trips and falls and spills their drink at McDonald's your first thought is to laugh, because it is a funny situation.  But then immediately, you feel sorry for them, and you probably run over to help them up and then quickly help to clean up the mess.  That is what our verse is talking about.  It is talking about two opposite reactions to a situation.  When your friend has a problem you can either make fun of them, or you can try to help them out of the problem.  Solomon says that a true friend will help their friend out of the problem.  A false friend will laugh and tell someone else about the problem so that they will laugh too.  But when a friend sees you and another friend laughing at them, they will no longer trust you.  You have hurt their feelings.  They will no longer be your friend.  Remember, when problems come, you can either help solve the problem or you can gossip about the person who has the problem.  You can either help your friend, or you can laugh at your friend.  Actually, if you laugh at your friend, they are your former friend.  Get it?

Proverbs 17:5  Have you ever made fun of someone?  It is easy to pick on someone who is not able to defend themselves.  They may walk with a have a limp.  They may wear thick glasses.  Our verse talks about someone who is poor.  One of the kids on your baseball team may not have much money.  He may not have a great bat and glove like you do.  Some of the other boys may make fun of him because he is poor.  But Solomon says that when someone makes fun of someone else, he is making fun of their Maker.  Who made the poor child?  Did you have a choice about what family you were going to be born into?  Did the poor child have a choice about what family he was going to be born into?  When you make fun of another person God sees and knows.  When you are glad when something bad happens to someone else, God sees and knows.  Don’t be mean to others.  After all, God sees us and He remembers when we mess up and need His help.  How do you think the Lord feels when we make fun of one of His children?

Read Proverbs 17:1  Our verse for today talks about choices.  Let’s try some choices:  Would you rather be a lion or a bear or an elephant?  Why?  Would you rather be a famous person or a rich person or to be left alone?  Why?  If you were in a fight, would you rather have a pistol or a shot gun or a machete?  Why?  Solomon gives us a choice here in our verse.  You can have a big house with plenty of food or a little house with just a little food.  But with the big house comes fighting and fussing.  But with the little house and dry food comes peace and quiet.  Solomon made his choice in our verse: he would rather have just a dry crust of bread with peace and quiet than to live in a big house with plenty of food with strife.  I agree with Solomon.  I would rather have family who love me than live in a big house filled with angry relatives.  Which would you rather have?  Why?

Read Proverbs 16:32  Soldiers go through a lot in their training.  When a young man goes into the army he first goes through Basic Training.  He is put through weeks and weeks of difficult exercises and drills that are designed to mold him into a skillful soldier.  His drill sergeant yells at him and the recruit has to take it.  His drill sergeant isn’t yelling at him just to be mean.  He is yelling at his recruit to teach him to be tough.  When you see a soldier, you see a powerful, skillful, killing machine.  But our verse says that a man who can control his temper is even more powerful than that skillful soldier.  It goes on to say that a man who can rule his spirit well is better than a mighty general who captures a city in a battle.  Solomon says that self control is better than military might. 

Read Proverbs 16:31  This is a great verse because it talks about me!  I have a hoary head.  Can you guess what a hoary head means?  It means gray hair.  Most people don’t like gray hair because it means they are old.  But I like my gray hair because it makes people be nice to me.  I don’t have to work as hard as others because I am just an old man.  I don’t have to remember everything because everyone knows that I am just an old man.  I can take naps and go to bed early because I am an old man.  I like my gray hairs.  If you have been a Christian a long as I have, you know how faithful God can be.  I have learned to trust God.  You are young and just learning to trust God.  My gray hair is like my crown – a crown that the good Llord has given me to wear.  It is great!

Read Proverbs 16:24  When I was a little boy, I used to go to West Virginia for three weeks in the summer to stay with my grandparents.  Papaw had a small farm and worked as a plumber each day.  Plumbers put together the pipes in houses that bring in fresh water and take away waste water.  Papaw had a chicken house and sold eggs.  We had to gather the eggs and wash them.  Then we had to grade them, which means to put them in cartons by their size.  Papaw also had a hog which ate all of the table scraps.  He had a cow and a calf; the cow, which he milked twice a day and the calf, which he grew all year and slaughtered in the fall for meat.  From the house to the barn was a lane with bee hives on one side.  Hundreds of honey bees flew back and forth from the hive gathering nectar.  Those honey bees never bothered us as we walked by.  They were busy working to make honey.  Papaw gathered some of the honey in the fall leaving the bees plenty of honey to take them through the winter.  The bees made beeswax and put their honey in the honeycomb.  Papaw cut off some of the honeycomb for me to eat.  As I bit into the comb, the sweetest taste burst into my mouth.  The sweetness was wonderful.  King Solomon said that pleasant words are as sweet as that honeycomb to the soul.  Don’t you love to hear your coach say, “That was a great hit you just made.”  Isn’t it great to hear your mother say, “Good job!  I am proud of you.”  Don’t you like to hear your dad say, “You made me happy today with the way you treated your brother and sister.”  Those pleasant words are as sweet as the honeycomb.  Use good words to help others and to lift them up.  You can help them to have a great day!

Proverbs 16:18  Wow! This verse gives us a warning.  Someone who is proud thinks that they are pretty good.  May be even perfect.  But the trouble is that they aren't perfect.  When they let other people know that they are perfect, other people think, "Oh brother!  This person is soooo snooty!  They really think they are something!"  When I was in college, there was a young man who was just that way.  He thought all of the girls should be so lucky to have a date with him.  He was always combing his hair - even though he never had a single hair out of place.  He had the best of clothes - and he knew it.  He took voice lessons, even though he thought he didn't really need to.  So one day he was scheduled to sing a solo in chapel.  But when he went up to the platform and began to sing, he forgot the words and stopped.  So he started again, but he forgot the words at the same place.  The president of our college then stepped in and said, "Young man, sit down, learn the words and come back and sing another day."  The young man was humiliated.  But the sad thing about it is that everyone else was glad when he messed up.  The young man was proud.  He was haughty.  And our verse reminds us that a proud and haughty spirit soon leads to destruction and a fall.  Watch out for a proud spirit.  It will only get you into trouble.