Read Proverbs 21:9  This verse talks about a problem wife.  So you may think, "Well, I am out of trouble because I'm not old enough to have a wife or to be a wife."  Well, that may be true, but there are Bible principles here that apply to all of us.  Jump to verse 19 and read it too.  It says almost the same thing, doesn't it?  But verse 19 adds contentious and angry to brawling in verse 9.  So what do these three words mean?  Well brawling is fighting.  A brawling woman is someone who likes to fight all the time.  They like to fight.  And brawling goes with contentious.  A contentious person is hard to get along with.  For example, if you say that you like the Pittsburgh Pirates football team, they would say that they like Philadelphia.  If you say you like puppy dogs, they would say that they like cats.  But a contentious person doesn't just say that they like Pittsburgh or cats, they don't like Philadelphia and dogs.  They will argue with you about their favorite football team or their favorite pet.  But actually, they may not like either one!  The contentious person just likes to argue.  Whatever you say you like, they don't like.  They have a disagreeable disposition - they are cranky.and always out of sorts.  And contentious and brawling goes right along with angry.  Angry people have real problems deep down inside of themselves.  They are like the Grinch - they are just plain mean!  But let's stop here a minute.  The wife has been getting a lot of grief so far.  But how about the husband who picked her to be his wife.  He sure made a poor decision in wives, didn't he?  So there you have it.  Our verse says several things.  Although it talks about a brawling woman, it is telling you girls not to grow up to be an angry wife.  Do not grow up to be the kind of wife that makes your husband prefer to live in the corner of  the house rather than to live with you!  And you boys, when you grow up, be careful about the woman that you choose to be your wife.  Don't pick a popular woman, pick a woman that you can live with!  You decide who you want to hang around with, and a wife is for keeps!  Don't pick angry people for your friends.  And, don't be an angry person.

Read Proverbs 21:4  Here in our verse God reminds us of three sins.  We clearly know that the first two are sins, but the last one . . . How can plowing be a sin?  We know that a high look is a sin.  A high look means that someone is snooty.  They think that they are better than everyone else.  Their heart is even proud.  And that is the second sin that our verse mentions.  But the third sin, the plowing of the wicked, how is that a sin?  Well, let's think a minute.  Where did the wicked man get the strength to get up in the morning?  Who makes the wicked man's heart to beat?  Who's air is the wicked man breathing every minute?  Who caused the sun to shine on the wicked man's field?  Who sends the rain to water the wicked man's crops?  But does the wicked man thank the good Lord above for all of His wonderful blessings?  No!  The wicked man says to himself, "I have worked hard and made this crop.  This is mine, and mine alone."  The wicked man doesn't thank God for doing most of the work to make his crop.  The wicked man's ungrateful work is sin before Almighty God.  Everything that we have is God's.  He is so good to us!  We should thank him for all He does for us!  Let's be grateful and not sin before God.

Read Proverbs 21:2  The first half of our verse says that everyone thinks that they are right.  When you see someone at church dressed in a really weird way, the really weird part is that they think that they look good.  If someone thinks that they do not look good, they will change their clothes - that is unless that someone is Grandaddy.  Marmie makes Grandaddy wear her favorite tie to church.  You know, that really weird tie. Just kidding!  Just like we think that we are dressed great, our verse says that we think that we are right.  Everyone has an opinion about something, but we are not always right.  That is why half of the world drives Fords and thinks that Chevys are junk, while the other half of the world drives Chevys and thinks that Fords are junk..  But the second half of our verse lets us in on a secret: we may think we are right, but God knows our hearts.  He knows what is deep down inside of each of us.  We may fool other people, but we can't fool God.  He knows it all.  We may think that we are right, but God's way is absolutely right!  We can know that we are right if we follow God's way. 

Read Proverbs 21:1  Did you know that God is in charge of everything?  We have different leaders in charge of our governments.  You have a mayor who is in charge of your city.  Do you know the name of your mayor?   Do you know the name of the governor of your state? Do you know the name of your president?  You need to know the names of your leaders so that you can pray for them.  But our verse says that although we may think that these leaders are in charge, God is really in charge of them!  Our verse also gives us an example.  The water in a river moves along downstream, but we can take a paddle and stir the water and move it around.  That is the way that God works.  God can put thoughts into the hearts and minds of our leaders.  These powerful leaders may even think that these thoughts are their own ideas, but they are actually thoughts that were put there by God Himself.  God is much better at leading us than any of our human leaders are.  Oh, they may think that they are in charge, but God is actually in charge of them!  And God always does what is right.  He is a perfect leader!  I am glad that God is in charge of our leaders, who are in charge of our governments, who are in charge of us.  Let's pray to God thst He would direct our leaders to lead us the right way.

Read Proverbs 20:29  Now this verse is a real problem!  Well, the first half is not a problem, but the second part is.  It talks about gray hair - something that I know a lot about.  Ha, ha!  In the cycle of life, young men like to show off their muscles.  But as the young man ages, he becomes a middle aged man, and then he becomes an old man.  It just seems like yesterday that I was in college running 3 miles before breakfast.  Now I waddle 3 steps to Chick Fil-A to eat breakfast.  Young men are proud of their muscles and old men are proud of their experience.  And experience is seen by their gray hair.  But growing older is no guarantee that you are growing wiser.  Gray hair just means that you are older.  Wisdom comes by listening to God and reading and heeding His Words in His Bible.  Today I finished my work early and I went by . . . can you guess where?  Yes, Chick Fil-A.  At Chick Fil-A senior citizens get free drinks.  So I went by Chick Fil-A and got my free coffee and sat down and read my Bible for an hour.  I Read all of II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.  Isn't that amazing!  I read 5 books of the Bible in one day - actually in one hour!  Did you know that most of the books in the Bible can be read in 20 minutes or less?  It isn't very hard to read God's Word.  We just have to do it.  And by reading God's Word, we become wise.  Our gray hair then shows wisdom and not just old age.  I am glad that I have gray hair.  And I am glad that you have muscles!

Read Proverbs 20:22  Solomon uses a big word here in our verse for today.  The word is recompense.  Recompense means to pay back.  It means to get even with someone who has wronged us.  When someone does something bad to us, our first reaction is to do something bad right back to them.  We want payback.  We want to get even with them for what they have done to us.  But our verse warns us that we should not try to get even; we should not recompense evil with evil.  When our Lord Jesus Christ was dragged into court just before His crucifixion, did He try to get even with His accusers?  No, Jesus answered them not a word.  He knew that they would not be satisfied with anything that He said.  They were determined to put Him to death on the cross.  And God turned around that terrible deed into salvation for all of us who believe on Jesus Christ!  We do not need to get even; we should let God take care of us.  God writes down everything in His books and someday, He will get even for us!  In Romans 12:19 God says, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  We don't have to get even if God is keeping up with everything.  We just have to trust God and be kind to others.  Someday, God will repay.  He will take care of us!

Read Proverbs 20:19 This is the fourth time we have heard of a talebearer.  Solomon must have thought that talebearing was important to be warned about.  A talebearer is someone who carries a tale around.  They bear a tale.  A tale is a story that may or may not be true.  The truthfulness of the story is not important to the talebearer.  They just want to carry the story around to several people so that they are the ones who are important.  The talebearer will come by and say, "Have you heard the latest story?"  And of course you haven't, so they get to tell you the latest tale.  The talebearer likes to be the first one to carry a story around.  That is why they talk to so many people.  They have to be "in the know."  They are nosy.  They stick their nose into other people's business so that they can carry more tales to the next person.  And what do they say at the next person's?  They say, "Have you heard the latest story?"  As a mater of fact, they will actually add things to the story that they carry in order to make it more exciting.  They call it embellishing the truth but God calls it lying.  Whether a story is true or not is not the important thing to a talebearer.  What is important to the talebearer is that they have a new story and that they are the first to bring it to you.  A talebearer will bring you gossip about someone else and then try to get information out of you.  They want you to join in their talebearing.  But the problem with a talebearer is that when they leave you, they will talk about you to the next person.  They come to you with a tale about someone else, and then they go to someone else with a tale about you!  So when a talebearer comes by with some juicy gossip, just remember that they will be talking about you at their next stop.  Be honest and faithful in your words.  Don't fall for the flattering words of the talebearer because they will turn the tale around at their next stop.  At their next stop you will be the next tale.