For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. – Proverbs 4:3

Today's Scripture Reading (November 1, 2022): Proverbs 4

My grandchildren are still trying to figure out family relationships. Last weekend, much to the disdain of his brother and sister, who apparently already possessed the knowledge, it was one of my eight-year-old grandsons who was surprised to find out that the lady they call Grauntie is actually my sister. The same grandchild also mourned the fact that my wife's brother passed away from cancer before he was born. For him, it was a great loss to find out that there have been family members that have died before he was born, and that they never got to meet him. Intellectually, they know that Great-Grandma and Grandpa are my parents, but I am not sure they can really imagine me being their age with parents and parental relationships just like they have.

I remember stories that my maternal grandfather, a big, strong man, was called "Little Murray" as long as his mother was alive. "Little Murray's" mom is the only Great-Grandparent I remember, and she passed away while I was a child. But it is one of the cycles of life. I was once a child under the tutorage of my parents. But time passed, and I became a parent and now a grandparent. And I have the privilege today of being both a grandparent to my five wonderful grandchildren and still being the grandson to my 107-year-old grandmother, whom I cherish.

Solomon reminds his son, as he gives him the advice that the son will need for life, that he was also once a son to his father. Maybe some of these sayings were handed down to him by his father. And possibly, the phrases could have been passed down to his father by his grandfather. If Proverbs really is the wisdom of Solomon, it is possible that some of these proverbs didn't originate with a King who had grown up in the cloistered atmosphere of the palace. Instead, they originated from a shepherd boy fighting off predators of the sheep in the Judean hillside and the wisdom of a Judean rancher struggling to make ends meet for his growing family. And the Proverbs may go back even further than that. If we are lucky, we all have advice that we follow that has been passed down through the generations to us, and Solomon now wants to pass his wisdom down one more time to his son.

All of this changes the nature of the advice that Solomon is about to give to his son. It is not advice that only means something in the sheltered environment of the powerful and the wealthy, but guidance that needs to be heeded by those of us living in the real world. Do these things, and you will set yourself up for success, no matter who you are or who your parents might be.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Proverbs 5