Listen, My Son

It always strikes me when I stop to think that Proverbs is essentially a letter from a father to a son. Proverbs 1:8 says, “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Just thinking about becoming a father is kind of scary. There are so many responsibilities along with countless unknowns. The weightiest thoughts I have, though, are about my role as my child’s spiritual leader. I firmly believe that God has called me, as the husband and father, to be the spiritual leader of my family. This is no small responsibility!

I’m already faced daily with my shortcomings as a husband—what about when I’m a father as well? How will I teach my son the truth of the Gospel? Will he accept it? How will I show him how to be a godly man? These are weighty questions.

As I read the Proverbs, I see so many character qualities a godly man must have. As a teacher by profession, I know that the greatest way to teach character qualities to a young person is to embody them myself.

Here’s the big question I therefore ask myself: If my own character is the only lesson I teach my son, what will he learn from it? If he copied me exactly, would that be a good thing (spiritually, I mean)?

I’m immediately confronted with my own shortcomings and weaknesses. I can think of about a thousand things I would not want him to learn from me (pride and selfishness to name a few).

Now I’m confronted with an even bigger question: If I don’t want my son to learn these sinful things from me in the future, why do I overlook them in my life right now? We’ve all heard the saying “Do as I say, not as I do.” If I don’t want this saying to be true of me when I become a father, why wait to start then? Shouldn’t I start now by seeking to grow in the areas I know I’m weak?

I don’t want to read the Proverbs to my son and have him thinking, “Why does dad read these to me when he doesn’t do them himself?” I know I cannot be perfect and I know nobody is, but when I say, “Listen, my son, to your father’s teaching,” I want those teachings to be something he sees in me on a consistent basis, not just empty words.

So today, along with my prayers for my son to know Christ and walk in wisdom, I’m praying for myself to do the same thing. And it can’t just start once I’ve become a father—it has to start right now.