Praying Proverbs

Last night I sat up in our little green library and began reading Proverbs, copying verses down in my notebook that has mushrooms on the cover, and praying those verses for each person in my family. I’ve never prayed through Proverbs before. Have you? It was a wonderful thing, dwelling on the words like that. 

Our little green library is in a loft space above our kitchen. It’s not the quietest place. On the contrary, you can hear both upstairs and downstairs from there. It would drive a librarian crazy. And truly, when I’m sitting there, I can only concentrate on what I’m reading at quiet times of the day. But last night as I copied verses from the first chapter of Proverbs it was wonderful to hear music and the voices drifting up from the kitchen as my husband and youngest daughter made our traditional Sunday night pizzas. And constant peels of laughter drifted up too as my oldest daughter and her sweet boyfriend watched TV in the den. All those sounds added to my concentration as I prayed for each of them and for myself. 

I wrote Proverbs 1:5-6 which says, “A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and riddles.” I prayed for each of us to really listen to wise counsel—to be affected by it. And as I prayed I had a wonderful visual come to mind. I imagined how, when we really dwell on wise words, they form paths. I could see them—words on a page falling down and rearranging themselves into all these roads, like in a city I’d want to explore. But if I merely pass over those same words without truly attending to them and letting them sink in, they just remain words on a page. They have no impact and that beautiful city full of roads to explore is hidden from me.

Blessings to you today—may you and I hear wisdom and wander down new and beautiful roads because of it.

~Amy