Sound Judgment

Proverbs 3:21-26:
My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
    preserve sound judgment and discretion;
22 they will be life for you,
    an ornament to grace your neck.
23 Then you will go on your way in safety,
    and your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
    when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Have no fear of sudden disaster
    or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
26 for the Lord will be at your side
    and will keep your foot from being snared.

There were a couple things I wanted to talk with you about today.  Firstly, I read a news story today about a young chess grandmaster who fell to his death from his 12th story balcony because he was engaging in extremely risky parkour acrobatics.  The lesson here is that you can be incredibly smart and still make incredibly bad judgments.  Remember, your lives are not your own to risk as you please.  If I had to choose between smarts and good judgment, I'd pick and recommend the latter!  It's more likely to lead to a long, happy, and productive life in God's service!

The other thing ties in with the verse you see above "when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet".  Sinful choices (greed, envy, lust, etc) will rob you of your peace and plague you with consequences you may not have predicted.  For me, I know the guilt/shame that comes with making sinful choices leads me to being angry with myself.  That tends to boil over into my interactions with others, where I make more bad choices out of irritability and the cycle rages on.  I may have preached this before, I don't recall.  

Be mindful!  Choose God's ways, even when you may not see the immediate benefit or, conversely, the immediate consequences of disobedience.  The better you are able to accomplish this, the sweeter your life, and sleep, will be.  Not to mention, you will be looked upon with admiration ("an ornament to grace your neck").  Defend your peace!  Fight the sin in your lives.  Pray for wisdom.  And as the psalmist says, preserve sound judgment and discretion.  

I love you!

Dad

Daisy Joy

Hello my beautiful one,

I just wanted to say I'm so excited to meet you in a couple months!  Feels surreal to me to be talking to my own daughter.  I will try to add posts especially for you since being our only daughter makes you unique.  But I will also keep it all on one blog since some messages will be important for you all.

I find it a great blessing that God has given you to your mother and I.  When I set out to decide on your middle name (wanted my kids to have them especially from their father), it didn't take long to come up with Joy.  Yes, it held with the J theme your brothers had, but I wanted it known that you bring me tremendous joy and if I only get to choose one word/name for you, that would be it.  I haven't laid eyes on you yet, but my heart is bursting at the seams already.

I don't want to write all my thoughts right now, but did want to get this ball rolling.

May God grant me many happy years with you!  I love you so much.  Always will.

Dad