In our world, certain hand motions mean certain things. Sometimes, they mean different things in different cultures. Our verse today relates to one certain hand motion that we should probably do more often: putting our hand over our mouths.

Proverbs 30:31 says, “If you have been foolish exalting yourself, or have been devising evil, put your hand to your mouth.” This phrase is also mentioned in the book of Job when Job was talking to his friend, but basically doing this meant you needed to stop something. In this Proverb, he’s saying to stop doing two things: 1) stop exalting yourself, and 2) stop devising evil.

The first is a humility issue. Our world today is very focused on exalting ourselves. It’s all about securing high places and titles for ourselves, and saying, “Look at me, look at me.” But remember when we talked about how wisdom in the Bible says not to put yourself in the seat of honor at the table lest you be shamed by being asked to move to a lower position?

And if you’ve been devising evil? Stop that, too. Neither of these things will have good outcomes. Promoting yourself should not be our focus. The book of Philippians tells us we should be considering others better than ourselves. It’s not about us. We should only make our boast in the LORD.

However, we also have this thing called false humility. For example, if you’re a singer and someone comes up to you after a performance and says, “Great job, you have an amazing voice!” and you’re like, “Oh, it wasn’t me, it was all the LORD,” etc. Look, you can say thank you. It’s okay to accept a compliment. But on the other hand, we shouldn’t go fishing for compliments either. It’s not good for us to be prideful.

Let’s read our verse again: “If you have been foolish exalting yourself, or have been devising evil, put your hand to your mouth.” In other words, just stop it. If you’re devising evil, keep in mind that the Bible teaches that we reap what we sow. If you’re devising evil, it will come back around to you; there will be a consequence. So let’s get wisdom.

As we read through the Proverbs, it’s important to remember that these sayings aren’t promises. God is not necessarily bound to these things, but they are truisms, things that typically come true. I really hope today’s verse comes true. It’s a good one.

Our verse for today is Proverbs 29:17. It says, “Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give the light to your heart.” I hope this is true for both my son and my daughter. Let’s talk about how to apply it the right way.

When most people think of discipline, they tend to only think of one aspect of discipline: correction. But I think discipline has at least two different elements to it: correction and instruction. Discipline is not just about getting kids back for their wrongs. Sometimes we expect our kids to know things that we know, but we haven’t yet trained them to know these things. We need to learn to be patient with them and to instruct them as we correct their behavior.These are the teachable moments of which we should take advantage.

My wife and I are trying many different techniques as we’re raising our kids. My son is about to turn 3, and sometimes it’s so frustrating to discipline him. It takes a lot of energy, and sometimes I’m just worn out and I don’t want to do it. But it’s worth it in the end, and I can already see some of the benefits and the fruit of our labor. For example, in our house we’ve been working on the idea that when my kids don’t get something they want, it’s okay for them to be disappointed and sad, but it’s not okay for them to blow up in anger. It’s been great to see them often times, when they hear me say no, to respond back with, “Okay.” These moments remind me that we need to be diligent in disciplining our children well because 1) God commands us to, 2) it’s good for them, and 3) it’s good for us.

So it’s hard work, but it’s worth it. The other night my son woke up in the middle of the night and started yelling, “I need to go pee!” So we got up, I took him to the bathroom, and when we got there, he started telling me he hadn’t been calling for me, but that he wanted my wife instead. My first thought was, “I don’t want to be up either, boy! I want to be in bed, but Mama didn’t get up!” But instead I patiently chose to say, “Well, when you need help, you get help from whoever is available to help you.” And I got him to get up and use the bathroom, and as I picked him up to carry him back to his bed, he hugged me and said, “I love you.” A minute ago he didn’t want me, but being faithful in discipline that includes instruction pays off.

It’s important, as parents, to know both aspects of discipline. It’s important to have ideas both for how to correct and for how to instruct, so our children grow. I did a series called “Consequences that Work,” and in that series I talk about how consequences that work well need to be explained and they need to be customized. Children need to know what consequences to expect before they get themselves into situations. That way, when our kids make a bad choice, the responsibility is on them. They knew what would happen, so they can’t be mad at anyone but themselves, and it teaches them responsibility for their own actions. And in doing this, we don’t have to lose any unnecessary sleep over it. They knew the consequences, and it was their choice to earn the consequence, not ours to put it on them. And that gives us rest.

Let’s read our verse one more time: “Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give the light to your heart,” Proverbs 29:17.

Recently, there was a story on the news about a guy who’s a graffiti artist. He went and vandalized someone else’s property; he went and put up his artwork on someone else’s building without asking. Then a magazine was looking for a place to do a photo shoot, and they decided to use the building with this man’s artwork. This made the graffiti artist upset, so he’s suing the magazine for using his artwork without permission…that he illegally put up. I can’t wait to see how this works out.

Our verse today is Proverbs 28:5. It says, “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” When he says “evil men do not understand justice,” I think he’s talking about people who reject the LORD, people who have not chosen to follow God. They don’t understand justice because they’re not seeking God. I think that’s the most evil thing possible—to reject the God who made you. Not acknowledging the one who gives you breath is evil.

If we reject or deny God and his justice, then we become our own standard of righteousness. This is so common in our world today. Whatever fits our needs is okay, because we’ve essentially become our own gods. Consider this quote: “God made man in his own image, and we return the favor.” We make a God that suits our needs. Many of us are guilty of this on different levels.

But the second part of the verse says, “but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” When we seek the LORD, we can see and understand justice clearly and correctly. God is the rightful standard of justice, because he made all things. It’s sad how hard it is for us believers to speak up today about what is truth, because people don’t want to hear it; instead, they want their own god.

But this verse says that “those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” Sometimes we as believers can become very frustrated when people reject God’s truth and it becomes easy to lose focus. We need to remember that these people need the LORD. Their problem isn’t necessarily whatever particular topic we’re disagreeing on; their ultimate problem is that they need God.

We often try to fix people by making them more moral because that makes us more comfortable, when really they first need the foundation of knowing God. We tend to get that backwards. God has not called us to simply be moral people; we’re called to receive and trust in Christ. Of course evil men won’t see things justly; they don’t have the capacity to do so without Christ. So as we pray for non-Christians, let’s make it our prayer not only that they would be moral, but that they would come to know the God that made them.

Here’s our verse one last time: “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely,” (Proverbs 28:5).

Have you ever seen the show American Idol? If you haven’t, it’s a reality show with singers competing for the prize. When it first started, people would get up on stage and sing who could not sing, couldn’t even carry a tune. I know it’s all part of the show, and that reality television is not exactly reality, but when those people got all upset, I’m thinking either A) this is fake, or B) those people didn’t have anyone who loved them enough to tell them they can’t sing. No one would tell them the hard truth. That’s what true friends do. (If you ever see me auditioning for American Idol, tell me no! I can’t sing! PLEASE stop me before I make a fool of myself on national TV!)

Our verse today has something to do with this, with true friendship. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” This is so important for us as friends, and for those who are friends to us.

Have you ever heard these sayings? “Friends don’t let friends drink and drive.” Or, “friends don’t let friends ruin their lives.” Sometimes we have people in our lives who are fake, or phony. They’ll be sucking up to you, trying to get you to like them to your face, but talking about you behind your back. We need true friends that will tell us when we’re going down the wrong path. We need friends that love us enough to lose our friendship.

I had a girl come talk to me once who had a friend who was on drugs and in with the wrong crowd. She was afraid for her friend, and she wanted to tell her parents what was going on, but she was afraid she would lose her friendship. I asked her, “Do you love your friend enough to do the right thing for her, even if it costs you her friendship?” She said yes, so I told her then that she needed to make that call. Would she really be loving her if she didn’t get her help, and then she ends up addicted to drugs?

We need to speak the truth to others in love. If we’re going to be true friends to people, we need to stop trying to tiptoe around or beat around the bush. We don’t need to say things rudely or call people stupid, but we can still call our friends out when they’re going astray. The verse says “faithful are the wounds of a friend”—it may hurt! It may bother us in the moment when our friends call us out, but it’s so much better than having people sit back while we ruin our lives. So let’s speak the truth in love.

Will you be willing to hear when family and friends speak hard truths into your lives? We all have blind spots in our lives where we need critique and constructive criticism. It can be hard to hear, but we need people to walk alongside us who can point these things out to us, and we need to be willing to listen to these people. They’re our true friends.

Here’s our verse one last time: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy,” (Proverbs 27:6). So be a true friend, and surround yourself with true friends. Together, we can get wisdom.

As you may already know, I have the privilege of being a motivational speaker in public schools through Hello Mr. Brown and the Choose Well program. I get to do assemblies and classroom visits and sometimes some one-on-one mentoring, but my favorite is small group talks. I often end up talking with a group of boys about how to make good choices and have self-control. I often tell them this: if you don’t control yourself, someone will have to control you for you.

This relates to our verse today. Proverbs 25:28 – “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” We often tend to be very impulsive. We think something and we do it; we think it, and we do it. We don’t think about the consequences until later. So when I speak to kids, I try to encourage them to think about the consequences before hand. It’s kind of like playing chess: you need to strategize, understand what your opponent’s future moves might be, and most importantly, plan your own next moves carefully.

Let’s go back to the idea that if you don’t control yourself, someone else will have to control you for you. When I’m talking to kids, I often use the example of people in prison. For those who are in prison justly, who did something wrong and earned the consequence, it’s likely that they are there because they suffered from a lack of self-control and did something they shouldn’t have done. Therefore, someone else now controls them; someone tells them what they can and cannot do. But we should be people of self-control.

I also use this illustration with students: pretend when you get home one day that the walls of your home are gone. Everything else is still there and in place, but the walls are gone. What would happen to your stuff? It would get wet, it might get stolen, and you might not be able to sleep well at night for fear.

In the Bible, we read about cities with walls around them; they were there for protection. Like Jericho. God instructed Joshua to march around the wall and then it crumbled so they could go in and attack. So what I’m getting from this verse is that, like city walls protect cities, self-control protects us. Being able to control your impulses keeps you from giving your strength away to others when you give in to a lack of self-control.

I think of the issue of gun-control. I know this is a difficult and controversial topic, and there are a lot of grieving people as a result of school shootings and whatnot. But if we look only at the guns themselves, we won’t get anywhere, because deeper down, this is an issue of the heart, and of self-control. We should have self-control in the kinds of media we consume related to this; it affects how we think whether we like it or not.

The point is this: what we consume will one day consume us. What we allow into our minds through our eyes and our ears impacts the way we live our lives. We have to have self-control not only in what we do outwardly, but also in what we do inwardly, or privately.

The bottom line is that we learn to have some self-control. We also need to learn a little about delayed gratification. We can’t always have what we want immediately. This is especially important for children. They need to learn how to accept no as an answer so that when they get yes as an answer, they have the capacity to accept it. Teaching our kids to handle “no” well is a great way to teach them self-control. It’s okay to be sad or disappointed, but not to blow up in anger.

Here’s our verse of the day one more time: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls,” (Prov 25:28). Make sure you have the wall of protection in your life that is self-control.

In This Episode

The book of Proverbs talks a lot about fools, foolishness, and folly. You’ll hear those words a lot as you go through this book. When a fool does something foolish, and then returns to his foolish ways over and over rather than learning from them…that’s folly! That’s foolishness! Our verse today talks about this.

Proverbs 26:11 says, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” This verse is kind of gross. That’s some gross imagery. This is also why I don’t have a dog. I think they’re gross. I don’t want to have to clean up after them, and sometimes they smell kind of gross. I’m not trying to put down dogs or dog lovers, I just don’t enjoy them.

When fools do foolish things, there are natural consequences that are unpleasant and unwelcome. But fools return to these things continually. Why would you do that? Just like a dog returning to its vomit…why? Why would you do that?

Why do we continue to sin over and over? I’ve been going through a book called The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, and he says that it’s often because we’re more focused on victory than we are on obedience. Victory is focused on me, while obedience is focused on God. God hates sin, and all sin is against God. So for us to go back to our sin, even when we know it’s wrong, that’s like us returning to eat our own vomit. That’s not good.

God is holy, and he deserves our holiness. As people of God, if we’re choosing to walk with God, then we need to turn away from our sin. We will always make mistakes, but it’s important that we learn from it, and then turn from it. We need to repent and turn away from our sin and towards God.

As parents, we can sometimes feel like hypocrites when we tell our kids over and over not to make the same mistakes that we did. It’s like, “Well, I did that, so can I really tell you not to?” But actually, I think that’s wise. We know that what we did was a mistake, and we’re trying to help our kids learn from it without making the same mistake themselves. That’s wisdom. Don’t be afraid to speak up and speak truth when you know something is wrong.

Let’s read our verse one more time. Proverbs 26:11 – “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Gross. Instead of doing that, let’s get wisdom.

Proverbs 24:1-2. They say, “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.” The idea is this: sometimes we find ourselves comparing ourselves to other people. I think that’s the start of envy, when we look at other people.

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Andy Stanley once said, “There is no win in comparison.” You will never win by comparing yourself to other people. Sometimes we like to compare ourselves to people who we think are a little bit lesser than we are. Or we may compare ourselves to people who have what we want, or who we think are better off than we are. Either way, we are going to lose because we don’t know the whole story. We can’t pick and choose the good without the bad.

Instead, we should stay focused on ourselves, and on God. When we focus on others, or on what we don’t have, we become envious. I looked up the word envy on Google and it said, “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or even their luck.” It’s important that we don’t fall into this trap.

Unfortunately, I think social media often leads us to fall into this trap. We may start by just looking, but we begin to browse longer and longer, and somehow everybody else’s life starts to seem better. But that’s not true. We tell false narratives on our social media accounts, because they aren’t telling the whole story.

Have you ever found yourself growing envious of someone you know isn’t doing the right thing, because you want what they have? I know I have. But our verses today tell us not to envy these evil people. Why? Because “their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.” I know this can be tough. But what do you really want in life? Do you want the temporary satisfaction gained by doing the wrong thing? Or do you want lasting peace and satisfaction from walking with the LORD in the way of wisdom?

These verses make me think of one of my favorite Psalms: Psalm 73. I love it because Asaph tells a story here. He starts off following God, but he gets distracted and loses his focus. Let’s read it:

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

3 For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

I love that the Bible doesn’t hide from us that these people weren’t perfect. They were broken people, just like you and me. We can relate to them.

4 For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

5 They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them as a garment.

7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

8 They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

9 They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

10 Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find no fault in them.

He begins to tell himself a false narrative, that all these people are doing well, and he became envious of evil people. But he could only see the outside.

Let’s skip down:

16 But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end.

18 Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

19 How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

20 Like a dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

21 When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

22 I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you.

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.

27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

28 But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.

He began to see things clearly. He had to understand who and where he really was. He knew he got off track, but he got back on track. Maybe you need to do this, too. Find sanctuary with God. Maybe that means going to church, maybe it means praying. If you don’t feel like praying, tell that to God. Be vulnerable and transparent with the Creator of the universe, because he knows it all anyway.

Let’s read our verse one more time – Proverbs 24:1-2. “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.”

Get wisdom, walk with the LORD, and don’t be envious of others. Remember: “There’s no win in comparison.”

Choices matter, so choose well. Let’s get some wisdom.

One of the joys in my life is that I get to go speak to children at schools about making good choices. My ultimate message is this: when you make better choices, you will live a better life. If you want more information about this, visit hellomisterbrown.com. But this isn’t a selfish plug of mine. It’s the idea about our verse for today.

This verse helps us see that our choices not only impact us, but they impact others, as well. Let’s check it out. Proverbs 23:25 says, “Let your father and your mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.”

Students: make choices in your life that will help you live a better life. Your choices will affect you now and in the future, but they will affect those around you, your siblings, your parents, aunts, uncles, and anybody else. I know your parents may sometimes pressure you to do certain things. I don’t always want you to live under the pressure of trying to please your parents; but I do want you to choose well, and to live a better life. Whatever you do, make choices that will honor your parents and honor yourself. Be a person of respect, honesty, and integrity. When you have these character traits, they will help you live a better life, and it will end up pleasing your parents too.

Parents: Make sure you focus on the essential things. It’s nice to have career goals for your children, but what if they aren’t geared for the career you want for them? What if they want to go into the arts instead of being the doctor that you want them to be? They may not want to be what we want; we don’t get to live out our dreams through them. We want to make sure we keep the main things the main things: that they have a fear of the LORD; that they love the LORD with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength; that they love and trust in Christ; and that they are making choices that honor Him. All the other stuff will fall into place.

Students, it’s important for us to choose well, and when we do, it will make your parents proud, and it will honor them, even if it looks different than they thought it might.

I hope that my children make choices that I can be proud of, and I also hope that I make choices that my mother is proud of. Of course, our ultimate goal is to please Christ, but if I do that, she’ll be pleased with me, too. One more time: “Let your father and your mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice,” (Proverbs 23:25).

There is a lot of division in our world today. People have difference—we are different—but sometimes I think we focus too much on the differences instead of on what we have in common. We will continue to be divided as long as we ignore the value we have in how much we have in common.

Today’s verse talks about this in light of the rich and the poor. What they have in common is greater than how they are different. Our verse today is Proverbs 22:2 – “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all.” I love this verse. Sometimes we equate our differences into different values. We look at wealthy people as better than poor people because of their monetary worth. Instead of ascribing to be people of honor and integrity, we ascribe to be people who obtain: wealth, possessions, etc. But we need to be careful not to ascribe value to people based on how much money they have, because our verse today reminds us that we are all made by the same Creator. We all get our value because we are His, not from anything else.

One day I was talking to kids in my Sunday School class; we were talking about the image of God and what makes each of us special. One boy raised his hand and shared, “Mr. Brown, I’m special because I have autism.” And I reminded him that yes, he has autism, but that’s not what makes him special or valuable. He is valuable because he is made in God’s image. Our looks, our talents, or anything else…these don’t give us value. Only God does.

One day, while I was at Starbucks, I saw a man heading toward me. He was missing a shoe, and looked pretty poor and ragged. And I wondered what was going to happen. I was a little uncomfortable. And then God reminded me suddenly that this man was still created in God’s image, and that he is of equal worth. Now, because of sin, choices made all the way back in the Garden of Eden, this image has been marred, but the value has always been there. Satan wants it to be covered, but the value is still there. In light of this, don’t look down on others because of a lack of success, or elevate them because they are successful. This isn’t where our value comes from. Also, keep in mind that we’re all accountable to the same God. Rich people will be accountable for what they have and who they choose to be, just as the poor will be accountable for what they have and who they choose to be.

So don’t ever allow anyone to make you feel less than, because you have been made in the image of God. Your value comes from him. “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all,” (Proverbs 22:2).

Ooooooh, you in trouble. If you hadn’t said that, you probably wouldn’t be in trouble, but you said it. You’re in trouble. You might want to get some wisdom.

Today’s verse is kind of repetitive. But the truth is, it’s good to review things. The Bible repeats itself a lot, and I think it’s because we don’t listen the first time. We can be kind of hard headed. Our verse today talks about our tongue, our mouth, and getting ourselves in trouble. Proverbs 21:23 – “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” We need to guard our mouths and learn to be quiet at times. Just because you think it does not mean you need to say it. We have to be proactive in what we think and say, to put a guard or a key over our mouths.

Remember Proverbs 13:3? “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens his mouth wide comes to ruin.”

Proverbs 12:13 says, “An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escape from trouble.”

Proverbs 14:3 – “By the mouth of a fool comes the rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will preserve them”

We need to be careful when we speak.

I’m working on this in my own life, especially in meetings at church. I was just talking to the administrative pastor at my church about this. When we’re in meetings, I could probably say something about everything. Does it all need to be said? No. And I know that. So I have to be careful what I say, and choose when I need to speak up, and when I should stay quiet. I don’t always have to say what’s on my mind.

My father-in-law often tells his wife, “I should get credit for what I didn’t say.” I like that! I could have said something, but I kept my mouth closed so I wouldn’t get myself into trouble. Now, I know that’s not the perfect mindset to have; I don’t need credit for having the self-control to not say something I shouldn’t, but it’s a sign that I’m growing, because I kept my mouth shut.

I grew up as a very impulsive teenager. If I wanted to say or do something, I did. But our verse today warns against that. If you struggle with this like I do, read the Proverbs and get some wisdom: “Whoever keeps his mouth and tongue keeps himself out of trouble,” (Proverbs 21:23).