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Many young parents today are beside themselves with anxieties about their children, and, sadly, confusion too about how to nurture them. The ongoing addiction of our times to the heresy of modernity and its proud rejection — and ignorance — of the tested and tried wisdom of the past, inevitably leads to dysfunction in home and family life. Sadly, the older, wiser counsel of God’s Word, and especially of the book of Proverbs, is unknown or neglected. Yet Proverbs was composed specifically as a manual for home and family instruction, and to prepare us for life in the world. It is a divinely given handbook to help parents.
Proverbs — and author Ken Wingate directing us into them — shows us the way to possess the jewel of all jewels in a well-adorned life: wisdom that is rooted in the knowledge of, and reverential love for, God. Here is true wisdom that will prove to be worth its weight in gold in every age and culture. Ken Wingate now brings it into our needy culture, and I for one am grateful to him for sharing his gift as a father with other fathers—and mothers, and sons and daughters too.
Here then is a book for parents to read on their own; for teenagers to read on their own; for parents and teenagers, who are willing to take the family challenge, to read round the table after dinner or on other occasions. It points us to God’s way. It promises us God’s grace. What could be better for us than that?
Click on "additional information" (below) for the Table of Contents and also to read the Preface to this book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson
Author's Preface
1. Abundant Life: Introduction to Proverbs
2. Wealth
3. Friends and Neighbors
4. Words
5. Sexual Purity
6. Work
7. Self-Control
8. Guidance
9. Pride
10. Health
11. Kindness and Mercy
12. Justice and Equity
13. Authority and Leadership
14. Husband and Father
15. Wife and Mother
16. Wickedness and Evil
17. The Future
18. The Lord
19. The End of the Path
Appendix 1: Key Principles for Abundant Living
Appendix 2: Proverbs by Subject
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
It was Christmas morning, 1996. Our extended family - three generations of Wingates and Edwards - had gathered at the farm we call 'Limerick'. Fifteen people, three Labrador Retrievers, and a cat scurried around the festively decorated farmhouse. A fire crackled in the fireplace. I vividly remember every detail of that cold, beautiful, noisy morning.
The children were excited, gift wrapping was flying, dogs' tails were wagging, Christmas music was playing. But in the midst of the revelry something was missing. Somehow the nicely wrapped gifts, though beautiful, seemed a little empty. The real agenda of the day was not yet accomplished.
I went for a solitary walk in the woods, and as I walked I prayed out loud: 'Lord, what is the best gift I can give my children for Christmas? What present will truly last?' My immediate impression was, 'Write them a book on life's most important lessons.'
In the days and weeks that followed, I searched the Scriptures, asking myself what lessons a father ought to pass on to his children. I kept going back to this passage from Proverbs.
Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck (1:8-9).
What instructions? What teaching? Thus I began sifting through and summarizing the lessons of Proverbs. What are its key principles? What words of wisdom did the father impart to his sons and daughters?
The longer I've studied, the more I am captivated by the practical wisdom of the book of Proverbs. It reveals the path to abundant life - and that is precisely the gift I want to give my children.
Twelve years and many life events later, here is the gift I've been making. It is really a personal gift for my three children, Miriam, Bryan and Catharine, but I am more than happy to share it with anyone who cares to eavesdrop on our conversation.
