The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting May 18th on Proverbs 18:9-12

[If you have been here before, in May, then you might want to skip down below the green for today's post.]

"Thirty days hath September, 

April, June and November

All the rest have 31

Except February which has 28

Except during leap year when it has 29"

NO I DID NOT WRITE THIS "POEM"!  (Talk about free verse!)

Why didn't somebody just point out that the four months that do NOT have 31 days (except February, and everyone knows all about February The Exceptional) come every other month except that there is no 30 day month between July and August?  The silly poem above mixes up the order just to hide the fact that the real 30 day months come in two orderly pairs: April/June and September/November.  Can somebody please write a non-silly poem for us that will make this clear, and stick in our minds, but without gooping them up with exceptions (and please just leave February out of it!)?

And to make matters (far) worse, MILLERWRITES has created a Proverbs Pull-A-Part Plan that decimates that fine collection of wisdom in the book of Proverbs, by spreading commentary on each chapter out over 7 months (the good 31 day months)!  Oh don't ask me to explain his system.  You can try to decipher what he said about it at the top of any P31P posts from January or March if you like, or just follow along this month and figure it out.

All Bible passages are from the NIV, and are copied here from Biblegateway.com

REMEMBER: My ideas may be oh so mesmerizing, but you will get more benefit from simply reading the chapter itself!

So here I offer my amateur comments on verses 9-12.  Today's inspired verses are in red, and my comments are neither       (neither inspired, nor red).

PROVERBS 18

1 An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends
and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.


2 Fools find no pleasure in understanding
but delight in airing their own opinions.


3 When wickedness comes, so does contempt,
and with shame comes reproach.


4 The words of the mouth are deep waters,
but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.


5 It is not good to be partial to the wicked
and so deprive the innocent of justice.


6 The lips of fools bring them strife,
and their mouths invite a beating.


7 The mouths of fools are their undoing,
and their lips are a snare to their very lives.


8 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to the inmost parts.

9 One who is slack in his work
is brother to one who destroys.

9) That's because of entropy.  The tendency of all things is to fall apart; to separate, rather than join; to scatter instead of gather and join; to move from order to disorder.  Look at your desk.  Since you last organized the whole thing, has it randomly become more, or less....satisfying to look upon?   We must put intelligent and deliberate "work" in every day just to maintain a certain amount of cleanliness and organization.  If there actually was any observable natural tendency for things to become more systematized, and more greatly advanced (then I MIGHT consider the presently outrageous claims of evolutionary theory), then the common movement of all things toward "destruction" would be obsolete, and we could watch our rooms get cleaner and more orderly while we all just sat around getting better looking and more adorable!

10 The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.

10) Is there anything "chasing" you?  Guilt?  Fear?  Insecurity?  Sin?  Riches?  Vanity?  Temptation?  Run to "the name of the Lord" and find refuge in that "tower"!  He knows all about it, and wants to be your shelter.

11 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
they imagine it a wall too high to scale.

11) I like the subtlety here.  Can't you almost hear Solomon laughing at the idea the wealthy have about the power of their wealth?  I hear his chuckle turn quickly into loud guffaws, and see him ROFL as the rich are shocked and dismayed when their treasures disappear in a flash.

12 Before a downfall the heart is haughty,
but humility comes before honor.


12) So I gather that in God's order, it goes like this:  A person is HAUGHTY (naturally), he has a major or minor DOWNFALL, HUMILITY is born (hopefully), and then he is HONORED!

13 To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame.


14 The human spirit can endure in sickness,
but a crushed spirit who can bear?


15 The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge,
for the ears of the wise seek it out.


16 A gift opens the way
and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.


17 In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right,
until someone comes forward and cross-examines.


18 Casting the lot settles disputes
and keeps strong opponents apart.


19 A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city;
disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.


20 From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.


21 The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.


22 He who finds a wife finds what is good
and receives favor from the Lord.


23 The poor plead for mercy,
but the rich answer harshly.


24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother




By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?

The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting May 17th on Proverbs 17:9-12

Woe is me!  This is the first P31P post this year, that was not posted on or before its stated date!  So sorry.

[If you have been here before, in May, then you might want to skip down below the green for today's post.]

"Thirty days hath September, 

April, June and November

All the rest have 31

Except February which has 28

Except during leap year when it has 29"

NO I DID NOT WRITE THIS "POEM"!  (Talk about free verse!)

Why didn't somebody just point out that the four months that do NOT have 31 days (except February, and everyone knows all about February The Exceptional) come every other month except that there is no 30 day month between July and August?  The silly poem above mixes up the order just to hide the fact that the real 30 day months come in two orderly pairs: April/June and September/November.  Can somebody please write a non-silly poem for us that will make this clear, and stick in our minds, but without gooping them up with exceptions (and please just leave February out of it!)?

And to make matters (far) worse, MILLERWRITES has created a Proverbs Pull-A-Part Plan that decimates that fine collection of wisdom in the book of Proverbs, by spreading commentary on each chapter out over 7 months (the good 31 day months)!  Oh don't ask me to explain his system.  You can try to decipher what he said about it at the top of any P31P posts from January or March if you like, or just follow along this month and figure it out.

All Bible passages are from the NIV, and are copied here from Biblegateway.com

REMEMBER: My ideas may be oh so mesmerizing, but you will get more benefit from simply reading the chapter itself!

So here I offer my amateur comments on verses 9-12.  Today's inspired verses are in red, and my comments are neither       (neither inspired, nor red).

PROVERBS 17



1 Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
than a house full of feasting, with strife.


2 A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son
and will share the inheritance as one of the family.


3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.


4 A wicked person listens to deceitful lips;
a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.


5 Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.


6 Children’s children are a crown to the aged,
and parents are the pride of their children.


7 Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—
how much worse lying lips to a ruler!


8 A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it;
they think success will come at every turn.


9 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

9) One of my favorite things to do is to "cover over an offense."  It's not really a wonderful pastime, per se, but when I get the chance to forgive and forget, or ignore and move one, or to acknowledge in the real world that "there, but for the grace of God, go I", I dive right in.

Furthermore; I hate gossip!  Too many of my friends seem eager, or at least willing and unrestrained, to partake.  And then I hate that almost as often, I listen.  What is it about gossip that draws us (me) in?  Pride, I think; because we want to find ourselves above the crowd, and the chance to actively compare our select triumphs with the highlighted failures of others, is too great of an opportunity to bypass. 

10 A rebuke impresses a discerning person
more than a hundred lashes a fool.

10) If you have children, you recognize this truth.  One can be guided by a soft "ahem" from across the room, and another scoffs when the police are at the door.  The discerning will learn from the mistakes of a 2nd cousin once removed, while the fool wastes his life away before he gets the basics down.


11 Evildoers foster rebellion against God;
the messenger of death will be sent against them.

11) Overly dramatic hyperbole?  I don't think so.  This seems more like a simplification of a real life, God driven, principle.  Whether there is an actual "messenger of death" is immaterial.  The point is, for all those who rebel against God (Lucifer included), death will be theirs in the end.  They will get their wish, and be eternally separated from the God they so despise.

12 Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
than a fool bent on folly.

12) Ain't that the trute!  I met a "fool bent on folly" once when I was in 8th grade.  Walking to school tardily, I was alone on the Chicago sidewalk.  A strange kid came striding across the street to intercept my path and proclaiming "we got another one, we got another one".  In my naivete, I queried "another what?" and he answered by punching me and running away.  Maybe he wasn't in the same league as an angry mother bear, but the worse are certainly out there.  The news is full of "fools, bent on folly."  And the only real way to stop this menace from stealing all of our peace is to reach the heart of the fool, and straighten it out with the wisdom of God.


13 Evil will never leave the house
of one who pays back evil for good.


14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.


15 Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent —
the Lord detests them both.


16 Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom,
when they are not able to understand it?


17 A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.


18 One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge
and puts up security for a neighbor.


19 Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin;
whoever builds a high gate invites destruction.


20 One whose heart is corrupt does not prosper;
one whose tongue is perverse falls into trouble.


21 To have a fool for a child brings grief;
there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool.


22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.


23 The wicked accept bribes in secret
to pervert the course of justice.


24 A discerning person keeps wisdom in view,
but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.


25 A foolish son brings grief to his father
and bitterness to the mother who bore him.


26 If imposing a fine on the innocent is not good,
surely to flog honest officials is not right.


27 The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint,
and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.


28 Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
and discerning if they hold their tongues.

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By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?

Hardly Surprising or Heartily Surprising

I tried to think of the many times I've been surprised in my life, but could not come up with a decent list.  More often than not, apparently, I have been able to figure out what's coming, or else I learned early on that just about anything is possible.  So instead of listing the times I have felt surprised, I came up with the following list of things that have either happened to me or that I have done, which in retrospect, are kind of surprising!  


But to make it one step closer to interesting, I worked and worked at coming up with one lie to add to this list.  Which item is the lie?


As a boy I was once dragged into a gangway and robbed by two kids.  When I cried, they let me keep my Mom's $5.00 and said they would come to my house to teach me how to fight (I'm still waiting).

Sitting on our porch roof in Chicago throwing dirt clods at  passing trucks seemed like the most natural thing to do.

I went to the Bozo's Circus TV show in Chicago...when I was in seventh grade.  When my teacher read my note, she was kind enough to keep my secret.

The day we moved from Chicago to Genoa City Wisconsin, our old house was broken into and my shotgun was stolen.  (Mom laughed at herself because they bypassed all of her jewelry, but ran off with a large jar full of pennies!)

If every teenager should have something they are really good at, my confidence was built by mastering the unicycle.

When a guy at my boarding school high school asked me if I "had any rubbers", I said "Yeah, but they're back home. They're the kind with buckles."

They say basketball is a "non-contact" sport but I managed to break my collar bone into three pieces during a  game against our school rivals.

Once I accidentally set my neighbor's garbage pile on fire, but refused to admit it (OK, so I just admitted it.).

After I was the final graduate of my high school class, the building was sold to the state and turned into a prison.


During final exams as a college Freshman, I taught myself to juggle instead of studying.

Never having heard the Gospel during four years of Catholic seminary, I finally got the message, and repented, at a public college.

I wore tights and an old curtain as part of a college class ("I auditioned for this?").

After I invited a co-ed to my room to play cards, she later told me about her collection of Playgirl magazines. THEN I realized that she hadn't expected to play cards.


When driving from Wisconsin to Alaska, my car died in the middle of British Columbia.  I sold the car for the price of the tow to the bus station.

Once my ankle was grabbed by a hook and cable from a hovering helicopter.

I played a jazzed up version of Amazing Grace on my saxophone, standing on a floating dock in a remote bay on the third largest island in the US.

In Alaska, I lived one summer in a tent on a platform I built over a creek.

When cutting down giant Spruce trees, they sometimes get snagged in another tree.  My solution?  Dynamite.

I met a beautiful girl at my Mother's funeral, and married her.


I skinny dipped in the Pacific Ocean off of Alaska, and still managed to have three great (non blue) kids!

A friend committed suicide on my birthday.  I found the gun on the beach, but must have walked right past his body in the dark.

I was sued for ruining a couple's sex life.

With good cause, I shoveled snow from my deck, up onto the roof overhead.

I lived in southeast Alaska (the salmon capital of the world) for nine years and only caught one salmon.

Two restaurants have burned down the day after my wife and I had dinner there.

When I fell off a roof and landed on the sidewalk below, my first words were "They said it was inevitable."

Since I bought my first car in 1978, a '73 Maverick , I have owned over 30 different vehicles, averaging about 1 per year!

I once had the opportunity to tell my wife that even her uterus was cute (And no, I did not let the opportunity go to waste.).

I have never tasted coffee in my life.

From the middle of Wisconsin I somehow became a joiner, and have done high-end finish carpentry on multi-million dollar yachts that hang out at Monaco.

Even as such a young man, I have become super proud, Grampa Mike! OK so there are two lies in this list..