My daughter was exhausted, but there was no food in the house and someone had to go to the store. "Reid, why don't you do the grocery shopping?" she heard herself saying to her 17-year-old son. After all, he was always making suggestions to improve upon the grocery selections she brought home, so why not let him do it this time?
His eyes grew bright with anticipation and our grandson set off, armed with his mother's bank card and general instructions to get fruit, vegetables, chicken and ground beef.
"Mama," Amy told me over the phone as she related this incident to me, "He came home with a huge bag full of cucumbers!" She told me he had also bought a lot of expensive fruit..the grapes sounded like those brought home by the spies scouting out the Promised land. I had to laugh at some of the comical choices he had made, which his younger sister critiqued with an expert eye as the groceries were unloaded. (With a reputation for penny pinching this savvy shopper could've done an excellent job if she had been old enough to drive!)
I could sympathize with my naive grandson, however. He probably was as frazzled as the rest of us when actually faced with the myriad items on the shelves, having to decide on what to feed the family. It must have been overwhelming, since he telephoned for permission to use the card at a stop at Starbucks on the way home!
Everything always looks easier when someone else does it or explains it. At a Bible study Monday night, the lesson was on Walking in the Reverential and Obedient Fear of the Lord. Not a scared fear, but a reverential awe. It is easy to do in concept, but even as a mature Christian, I needed more revelation on what that looks like when walked out. We went over countless Bible verses, and some of them were more easily understood than others.
Psalm 34:11 says, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Proverbs 1:7 says that this is the beginning of knowledge. Deuteronomy 6:2 promises that keeping His statues and commandments prolongs life, both for us and our children! Verses 10:12,20 defines it to mean: walk in His ways, love Him, serve the Lord with all your mind and heart and your entire being!
"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones," Proverbs 7-8. That is something concrete we can do--turn away from evil, which also reaps health benefits! Verse 8:13 explains it as hating the things God hates: pride, arrogancy, the evil way and twisted speech. That's not hard to do!
Proverbs 22:4 says that the reward of humility and the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is riches, and honor and life! Psalm 25:12-13 promises the reward of peaceful living and the inheritance of the land for the children of one who fears the Lord.
But the most thought-provoking and startling was Malachi 3:16, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." God keeps record of our thoughts and conversations of Him! What a wonderful, yet sobering thought! (The following verse is comforting and reassuring, however!)
Solomon, who the Bible says was the wisest man who ever lived, sums it up in Ecclesiastes 12:13, when he says, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Good advice for us and our children!
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