Verse of the Day for August 1

Most of us wait to feel ready before we take God seriously. We want to understand first, and then we will fear him. Proverbs puts it the other way round.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Beginning. Not the prize handed out at the end of a long course, but the first step through the door. Solomon has just promised to help the reader understand proverbs and dark sayings, the riddles of life, and before he explains a single one, he says where understanding starts.

That means you do not have to be wise to begin. You have to be willing to bow. Reverence comes before the answers, and it is often what makes the answers make sense when they arrive.

Then the very next line turns homely: My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. The fear of God is learned at a kitchen table long before it is learned in a library.

If you are facing a decision this week and feel unqualified, you are not disqualified. Start where Proverbs starts. Kneel by the bed before you open the spreadsheet, and let the first thing you bring to the choice be honour for the God who sees it.

You do not need all the knowledge to start. You need the beginning of it, and the beginning is bowing.

Some of the wisest things you know were said to you by a parent who never read a book on wisdom.