10/31/2010

Explorations and Dialogue on the Topic of

Orienting Your Children and Family
toward a Life of Wisdom

The Way of Wisdom is a journey!

 Repetition, ‘line upon line’, step by step

We are fellow travelers on this trip
 Fellow learners too…
 We’ll share insights and frustrations

Every family is unique
 Use good ideas and things that work
 Adapt to the ages of your children

This was our family’s experience / experiment

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WARNING

INSTRUCTION
CORRECTION
EXAMPLE

LOVE

Priority
 “Above all else”

Riches
 “More than gold”

Fascination
 “More precious than rubies”

Health; sustenance
 “Length of days, and long life, and peace,
shall they add to thee”

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The genre of Hebrew wisdom literature

The granularity of the literary form

The strengths of the Hebrew language

The adaptability to mental exploration
and meditation (thought transformation)

The power of the family relationship as a
context for wisdom

The addition of electronic tools…

…

Preparations

What we did

How it worked

Things learned

Observations

Ways to improve on our project

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Book of Proverbs
 Printed out verse by verse
 A giant ‘grab bag’ of wisdom’s puzzles
 Children love to take turns picking out gems!

Benefits
 Children practice reading Scriptures aloud
 Family works toward ‘solving the puzzle’
 Discussion of applications
 Decisions about classification
○ We put picked proverbs into category envelopes

Wisdom Categories: Life Lessons

Responding to Authority

Foolishness & Fools

Family Issues

Wealth & Riches

Leadership

Basic Life Principles

Speech & Language

Discretion

Marriage & Sex

Disrespect & Scorn

Justice

Compassion to the poor

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Select a verse

Classify the type:
 Contrast?
 Comparison?
 Other form? (List? Enumeration? Insight?)

Explore the verbal images!

Gaze into the ‘wisdom link’
 What aspect of God’s character / nature?

Discuss together