Theme: INTEGRITY
Text: “The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” – Proverbs 20:7.
Comment: The behaviours of children are a combination of traits, inherited from parents, and experiences from their environments. A trait is defined by the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary as “a particular quality in one’s personality”. Integrity is a quality that can be handed down by parents to children. Children naturally ape their parents instinctively and so a parent who speaks and behaves uprightly will most likely have children who do same by God’s grace. (Proverbs 22:6; 2 Timothy 1:5) As taught in the text for today, such children are blessed greatly by God, as they receive not only blessings for their personal integrity, but also receive overflow of blessings from their parents’ integrity. A ready example is that of a disciple called Timothy “the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess…but his father was a Greek”. (Acts 16:1) St. Paul said Timothy had strong faith in God like his mother, as he wrote in the following verse, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” (2 Timothy 1:5) As parents, living in integrity should be seen therefore as an investment in our children, besides the personal blessings, good name, honour and favours accruable from God and men. – Proverbs 22:1; 28:6.