High School Sweethearts – Proverbious – Day 29 – Proverbs 5:18-23

Proverbious | David Lindner

I am blessed with an amazing heritage from both my parents and their parents. They are all amazing people who have been astounding examples to their families and the effect of their lives will be long-lived. They were not perfect, nor are our families. But, each in their own way, set amazing examples for us to follow. My parents set the example of perseverance and endurance under difficult circumstances. My Grandfather on my mother’s side was an amazing example of faith and following God not matter what the cost. His first wife died not long before my mom and dad got married, so I never knew her. But his second wife was a great example of serving and hospitality.

My Dad’s dad passed away when he was a kid, so most of his life was spent with a step-father. My dad is the oldest of seven. (and you thought our hands were full with four!) To me, since he is the only grandfather I’ve known on that side of the family, he is Grandpa. What is amazing about Grandpa and Grandma is their story.

They were high school sweethearts, then their families were separated by a distance, so they moved on with their lives. My Grandma met and married my Dad’s dad. But then after he passed away, my Grandpa ran into my Grandma. He learned of her situation, and not long after they began courting. They got married shortly thereafter, and remained married until she passed away a few years ago – over 50 years of marriage. To this day, he loves her and misses her deeply. You can see him look at a picture from when they were young and he’ll tear up.

He was an example of how to live out this passage. When you drink from you own fountain, your fountain is blessed. He was captivated by her love for all his life. I hope that I can be that kind of man for my entire life. I want my kids to remember me as being captivated by the wife of my youth.

Proverbs 5:18-23

May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in your young wife—
a loving doe, a graceful deer;
may her breasts satisfy you at all times,
may you be captivated by her love always.
But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,
and embrace the bosom of a different woman?
For the ways of a person are in front of the Lord’s eyes,
and the Lord weighs all that person’s paths.
The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities,
and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.
He will die because there was no discipline;
because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.

We want to be the kind of people who seek to be captivated by the right love and repelled by the seductress. No matter what we do, the Lord sees our ways. There is no hiding from Him. The Lord sees what we do and he weighs it – in the sense of a balance. In other words, he evaluates and judges the path we have walked.

When we allow ourselves to get caught up in whatever tempts us in this world, we not only receive punishment for our choices in this life, but (without the saving grace of Jesus) we will receive punishment in eternity. The wicked get caught in their sin, and trapped by it. Their sin even leads to a life of pain and even death.

The choice is clear, will we be faithful to our first love or will we allow ourselves to be drawn here and there by the trappings of this world. Remember a major theme of this entire book is the idea of fearing the Lord. And this fear carries with it the idea of Respect and Worship. If that doesn’t denote the idea of being captivated I don’t know what does. If we are faithful to the Lord and following in his ways, we will know what it is to love for all of eternity.