Happy Father’s Day! // Proverbs 23:24

Today’s verse for Father’s Day from the Proverbs shows how dads feel joy when they see their children become wise. So, how does that happen? The answer in a nutshell is teaching through a connected relationship based on love and trust.

Knowledge is when you know something, but wisdom is when you know what to do with that knowledge. I think back to a training program I attended a while back. I could tell the facilitators knew the material they were teaching, but they lacked the real-world experience that turns knowledge into wisdom. It was obvious when they struggled to answer questions about real life scenarios and not just from a textbook.

There is a Chinese proverb attributed to Confucius that goes, “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” That gets to the heart of wisdom and one of the “whys” of Jesus’ public ministry. He came to teach us the ways of the Father, show us the way to live for God, and involve us in the ministry to make God’s love known.

God doesn’t necessarily need our help, but He knows that the best way for us to truly understand the problem of sin in our human condition and His gracious mercy as the solution is to let us experience the fullness of life. So, whereas Confucius could talk about involving people as a pathway to understanding, Jesus Christ lived this out to the extreme for you and me! As a result, the Lord wants us to build connected relationships with others to teach them about God Word, show them God’s way, and involve them in living for God’s will.