“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.”
The Tree
This verse, opening the whole book of Proverbs, names both parents deliberately, father and mother, instruction and law, both voices held together as necessary, not redundant. Wisdom literature does not treat one parent’s voice as sufficient on its own. Both are named, both are needed, in the raising of a child toward wisdom.
This is worth noticing in households where one parent’s voice has, for whatever reason, quietly grown louder or more authoritative than the other’s, whether through personality, circumstance, or simple habit. This proverb assumes both instruction and law, both parental voices, genuinely matter, neither one dispensable or merely supplementary to the other.
If you are parenting alongside a spouse, consider today whether both voices are genuinely being heard by your children, or whether one has quietly come to dominate while the other has receded into the background. If you are parenting largely alone, consider what other trusted voices might need to be actively included, not left absent.
Whatever your household’s actual configuration, ensure today that the instruction being given is not coming from only one direction when more voices are genuinely available. Wisdom, this proverb suggests from its very opening line, is received more fully through more than a single voice alone.
Tend the Tree
- Notice whether one parental voice has quietly come to dominate over another in your household.
- Actively include the less-heard voice today, deliberately, in some specific instruction.
- If parenting largely alone, identify another trusted voice worth actively including.
Prayer
Lord, let both voices in our household be genuinely heard by our children, instruction and law together, neither one quietly dominating or receding. Amen.
Carry this today
Wisdom is received more fully through more than one voice.