A few phrases from this chapter made me reflect on feelings I have had as a parent. “The guilty take the truth to be hard” from verse 2 and “they did humble themselves before the Lord” in verse 5. The truth can be a hard pill to swallow when it is about us. It is easy for us to point out when we are right or the good decisions we have made, but when someone tells us something we need to work on it is too easy to get defensive and react aggressively. This can be especially true when it comes from someone close to us such as our spouse, but I think it can be even harder to hear from our children. My children vary in their views of authority, but mostly they do not hesitate to express their opinions. Often they are childish and based on a lack of understanding but sometimes they are honest and provide clarity on situations. I have had to swallow some pills of truth that have been offered by my children sometimes, but most often I will respond with an appeal to my authority, wrong as I may be. It is often not till I have cooled off a little bit until I can respond with clarity and apologize for my behavior.
Another exercise that I do not do enough is ask my children what I can do better as their father. I know I am not doing everything right, all I have to do to remind myself of that is to think of the times that I felt my own parents made mistakes. When I have asked, sometimes my kids don’t really tell me anything substantial, but I hope that the humility is there enough so that they can feel that they can offer me advice and I can listen and take it in, like Laman and Lemuel did here.
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