A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.”       Proverbs 22:1 NKJV

As we mentioned yesterday, Proverbs chapter twenty-two seems to be especially written as a guide to raising successful godly children. I say this because it contains two specific verses which deal directly with that subject, among a progression of verses that lead us to understand what kind of adult ends up at the highest levels in life. This is a good place in scripture to structure our own lives in the process of building top notch kids!

I have noticed fifteen specific qualities listed here, scattered throughout these twenty nine verses that will help you build your family in God. Again, this is an important end-time subject. If not for all the determined parents throughout Christian history, most of us wouldn’t be here preparing for Jesus’ return. This is really a study in the grooming of great men and women of God!

Our children are “somebodies” in the making, who need us to be “somebodies” in God they can follow! They need us to show them the way by embracing God’s Word so much that we practice it and teach them how to do the same! We already mentioned how verse one starts this list by teaching the ultimate lesson on right and wrong VALUES.

Any true man of God will choose “favor” over “silver” when it comes to deciding what he will live for. This man’s conscience will lead him to build godly character reserves before cash reserves. A godly man knows it is more important to stay in a position that God will favor so his true enemy will have nothing in him to work with. Blessings follow the righteous and even though they are not always as readily available as opportunities to make fast money through compromising means, they are worth waiting on because they last longer. Our kids need to see that we will delay our own gratification in order to ensure our devotion to the Lord.

Love is the most valuable currency that exists in His economy, it purchases a good name for us when we invest it in God and trust Him to take care of our gold! As verse three teaches, this attitude keeps us in touch with everyone around us as well. Since the Lord doesn’t categorize human beings by how much they possess, we can’t afford to either…unless we want to be sorely disappointed with the results of parenting and the amount of our reward when He returns!