Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
Proverbs 4:13
Proverbs 4:13
“Red Rover, Red Rover,
Send Tammy right over!”
Tammy was the right pick. She was so thin we knew she could never break through our arm chains.
Harlan and Mark, however, were hulky (well, for 6th graders anyway). They were the ones we wanted beside us when we dared Tammy to come through on the Madison Middle School playground.
I thought of Red Rover when I read Proverbs 4:13 this morning. “Keep hold...do not let go...guard....” Like in Red Rover, we need strong things on every side of us, to help us hold it together when we’re trying to stand firm.
Solomon says “instruction” is one of those strong things. The Hebrew is muwcar—to train by discipline. It’s not a passive concept. Get it on your team, and lock arms with it.
Instruction may come through a person, through a reading, through an experience. Ultimately, all those come through the Lord.
Because God wants us to be strong when targets try to blow through our line of defense, he instructs, chastens, corrects us. For our good. For his glory. Listen for him; look; live.
Catch me alone, you can knock me down.
But with God, Harlan, and Mark, I double-dare you.
