Read
18Correct your children
before it's too late;
if you don't punish them,
trouble will come their way.
19People with bad tempers
are always in trouble,
and they need help
over and over again.
20Pay attention to advice
and accept correction,
so you can live sensibly.
26Disgraceful children
rob their father
and chase their mother away.
11An ignorant fool learns
by seeing others punished;
a sensible person learns
by being instructed.
Reflect
Good news, there’s hope. Wisdom can be acquired. Today’s reading presents us with three types of people who can benefit from correction in order to grow up and make progress in what’s profitable. First, children need correction. Everybody will agree with this in principle. Sure, the words “Don’t destroy them” seem to us rather extreme! But in fact they make us rethink why correction is important. Biblical teaching in general, and Proverbs in particular, teaches that correction is an important means to life. But always, the deepest motive must be wanting what’s good for the child. Then correction must always be exercised in love. We know that too much correction is done in anger, annoyance, and perhaps just as a reaction to being offended. But if a child is corrected in love and if the parents genuinely want to give him the best future possible, he will grow in wisdom. He needs help, and there’s hope. When it comes to the adult who punishes a child in anger, he needs correction just as much. He needs to take another look at his motives and adjust his methods. His heart must be touched. The “correcter” must be corrected. If he accepts reproof, he will be able to gain wisdom. Anger never pays; it is always more costly than we think. Lastly, ignorant or wise, anyone who’s open to receiving wisdom will receive it. It’s a matter of keeping an open heart. There’s hope for all of us!
Respond
Gérald Emery
Born in Switzerland, Gérald Emery moved to Quebec when he was 18 in order to operate a dairy farm. Six years later, he went into the ministry, serving in Quebec City for six years and in Portneuf for nine years. In addition, he taught for nine years at the bible college (Institut Biblique du Québec) in Longueil. He has been pastor of a church in Gatineau since 2011. Emery holds a bachelor’s degree in theology (BTh) from Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, and he has almost completed his master’s degree, studying at St. Paul University in Ottawa.