Parenting by God’s Design: A 5-Day DevotionSample

Day 4: The Best Parenting Manual 

The Bible is such a great source of parenting instruction because the Bible is realistic about how life really works. Yes, God has a design and yes, we all fall short of that design. The Bible is full of stories about parents who struggled and fell short. 

The book of Proverbs offers more direct biblical guidance for parents than any other book. Proverbs was written by Solomon, the wisest man in the world. We think Proverbs is written as a parenting manual. Solomon is trying to teach his sons how to raise their sons—his grandkids. Solomon primarily offers wisdom he gained by making a lot of mistakes. Even though Solomon was a king who was wealthy and wise, he had many insecurities. He also had lots of unhealthy patterns developed during his dysfunctional childhood. Those patterns affected his parenting.

Solomon’s dad, King David, failed as a parent. Solomon was the second-born son of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:24). Remember that David murdered Bathsheba’s first husband so he could marry her. In addition to the cloud surrounding the relationship between Solomon’s parents, Solomon had a constellation of half-brothers and half-sisters from David’s many other wives and concubines. Those siblings didn’t get along. There was all kinds of rivalry, sexual immorality, violence, and rebellion among Solomon’s brothers and sisters (2 Samuel 13-18). The point is that Solomon grew up in a seriously dysfunctional environment, at least by modern standards.

Like his dad, Solomon struggled as a father. He gave in to his sinful, selfish, sexual appetites (1 Kings 11:3). His son, Rehoboam, succeeded him as king and foolishly led Israel into a civil war that split their nation in two. Although God loved Solomon (2 Samuel 12:24) and blessed him in many ways, Solomon replicated the sinful patterns of his dad when it came to building his own household. Solomon was wise, but wisdom is only effective if you apply it. In many cases, Solomon failed to apply wisdom to his parenting.

You might wonder what qualified Solomon to write a parenting manual since he had such a shady background riddled with so many parenting failures. The answer is God. It’s the same reason we are qualified to be parents. It’s the same reason you are qualified to be a parent. It’s because God gave us our children and he has called us to raise them. Even if your background is shaky, and even if you have racked up a list of failures, you are still a key part of God’s design for your child’s flourishing. If Solomon can write a parenting manual, then we can step up and fill the role to which God has called us. God always gives us the opportunity to recover and pursue his design.