Title

Where Scoffers Come From

Scripture
A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
(Proverbs 13:1)
Devotional
A wise man will believe this proverb, no matter what age he may be. It is never too late to begin to honor your father and your mother. It is always too soon to stop honoring them. There are two key words in this marvelous proverb: instruction and rebuke. Each is dependent on the other. A rebuke will should always precede instruction. The rebuke for example would be, "Not that way my son." And the instruction would be, "This way my son." If we are not willing to listen to the rebuke we inevitably will not heed the instructions. We must be willing to hear the wrong that we may be doing in order to hear the right we need to do. So simple, yet so seldom done. And if we are not willing to hear it from our fathers, we will not hear it from others: instructors, supervisors, teachers, pastors, leaders and friends. We will just end up scoffers.