Powerful Proverbs: Nuggets Of Wisdom

Powerful Proverbs: Nuggets of Wisdom

If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.

Proverbs 19:27

Are there some popular sayings that have been passed down through your family? My mother-in-law always says, “Many hands make light work.” My stepfather would always say, “What goes around, comes around.”

Sharing proverbs isn’t so common in our modern society, but they are still popular with the Amish. Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of Amish Proverbs, writes,

The Sugarcreek Budget is a weekly newspaper for the Amish-Mennonite community that began in 1890. Scribes from all over the world send in a weekly letter to the Ohio headquarters. At the end of most letters, a proverb is added, like a benediction. “The trend began about five to eight years ago,” explains editor Fannie Erb-Miller. “We started to allow a saying on the end of a scribe’s letter, and then it just caught on. Now, almost all of the letters have one. Early on, letters didn’t include them. Mostly, they’re sayings that pass from generation to generation.”

Here are some of the proverbs that have appeared in issues of the Budget:

• Time spent with God is well spent.
• Only Jesus, the Living Water, can satisfy the thirsty soul.
• The Bible does not need to be rewritten, but reread.
• Today’s prices often indicate that the best time to buy something was last year.

These proverbs say a lot about the people who include them. As they write about farm life, births, deaths, and visiting guests, they also offer a bit of truth. What truth do you embrace? The more willing we are to ponder others’ wise words, the more wisdom we’ll have to pass on to the next generation.

In fact, here’s one that I’ll end with: The best gift for the younger generation is a good example from the older generation.

Dear heavenly Father, give me a heart willing to listen to instruction. Help me to embrace these truths so I can pass them on.