Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. (Proverbs 1:8–9)

Teaching and training begin in the home, where mother and father themselves are continually learning wisdom and growing in knowledge. They are not just teaching wisdom but, ideally, they are developing in the child a taste for learning, an appetite for growing in knowledge. The main task is to inculcate in the child a bent toward God and away from foolish living.

Of course, many people grow up in broken, dysfunctional homes where the ideal is not present; but wisdom can still be learned, although with much more difficulty. A godly and wisdom oriented home life gives a child a head-start in the process and will preserve him from making harmful mistakes of foolish living. However, a child might have very good parents yet still reject their teaching. For, after all, as we read elsewhere, “[f]oolishness is bound up in the heart of a child” (Prov. 22:15a). In a somewhat parallel sense, God is our perfect Father, yet we often choose to reject His wisdom.

We are never too old to begin developing a lifestyle of learning wisdom, but it is much easier the earlier we start. While “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” parents are the first instruments God wants to use in teaching a person how to live wisely in this world. We see this in God’s command to the Israelites:

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deut. 6:5–9)

The imagery is not exaggerated, though certainly picturesque: wisdom learned by children in the home is like “a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck.” The thirst for learning more wisdom as one grows will significantly benefit the wise person and bring honor. We usually think of ornaments as being having to do with outward appearance, but wise people carry a unique ornamentation of character; there is an attractiveness to them. They are pleasant to be around, especially in times of difficulty, when you want them on your team and are drawn to their advice and counsel.

Lord, help me develop a lifestyle of learning wisdom continuously.