Proverbs4: 20 – 27

Dragan Stojanovic

“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet,And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.”Proverbs 4: 20 - 27

1. Philosophy of belonging“My son, …”

4 fathers and 5 mothers: The father and the mother+ 3 fathers and 4 mothers: Abraham, Isaac and JacobSarah, Rebecca, Lea and Rachel

Children and young people need to understand that they belong to something big: we are part of God’s project, which makes us precious, valuable, and unique.

“Everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don't seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong.”Benjamin Hoff

An SDA purgatory?

Creating blackmail through the question of belonging.

If you come back, you will be ‘punished’ for what you did, in order to be an example to others

The concept of purgatory is contrary to the SDA Adventist philosophy of education or of the church

2. Philosophy of promoting the wondering“give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings”

Shema Israel

Shlomo: Definition of wisdom

“Give me wisdom” literally “give me a heart able to listen

“Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”Plato

“The learned lawyers, priests, and scribes scorned to be taught by Christ. They desired to teach Him, and frequently made the attempt, only to be defeated by the wisdom that laid bare their ignorance and rebuked their folly.... They knew that He had not learned in the schools of the prophets, and they could not discern the divine excellence of His character beneath the lowly disguise of the Man of Nazareth. But the words and deeds of the humble Teacher, recorded by the unlettered companions of His daily life, have exerted a living power upon the minds of men from that day to the present. Not merely the ignorant and humble, but men of education, intellect, and genius reverently exclaim, with the wondering and delighted listeners of old, “Never man spoke like this man” (John 7:46). TMK p. 189.

3. Philosophy of developing the inner life“Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;

“One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye." Saint Exupery

Without touching the heart, you cannot change human being

4. Philosophy of a harmonious development“for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”

A true life and an abundant health as a consequence of educational experience

Education is good for the health.

“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.”Mark Twain

5. Philosophy of protecting the identity of everyone“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Physically considered, the heart is the receptacle for the blood, in which the soul lives and rules; the pitcher at the blood­fountain which draws it and pours it forth; the chief vessel of the physically self­subsisting blood­life from which it goes forth, and into which it disembogues (Syst. der bib. Psychol. p. 232). What is said of the heart in the lower sense of corporeal vitality, is true in the higher sense of the intellectual soul­life. The Scripture names the heart also as the intellectual soul­centre of man, in its concrete, central unity, its dynamic activity, and its ethical determination on all sides. All the radiations of corporeal and of soul life concentrate there, and again unfold themselves from thence;…

“… all that is implied in the Hellenic and Hellenistic words νοῦς, λόγος, συνείδησις, θυμός, lies in the word καρδια; and all whereby  רשב (the body) and  שפנ (the spirit, anima) are affected comes in  בל into the light of consciousness (Id. p. 251). The heart is the instrument of the thinking, willing, perceiving life of the spirit; it is the seat of the knowledge of self, of the knowledge of God, of the knowledge of our relation to God, and also of the law of God impressed on our moral nature; it is the workshop of our individual spiritual and ethical form of life brought about by self­activity ­ the life in its higher and in its lower sense goes out from it, and receives from it the impulse of the direction which it takes… 

“… and how earnestly, therefore, must we feel ourselves admonished, how sacredly bound to preserve the heart in purity (Psalm 73: 1), so that from this spring of life may go forth not mere seeming life and a caricature of life, but a true life well­pleasing to God!” Keil and Delitzsch

“Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation…

“… Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.” Ed. p. 17.

6. Philosophy of transparency“Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.”

The same message comes from the mouth as well as the heart

Jeremiah 9: 8.

“Behold, I will refine them and try them; For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people? Their tongue is an arrow shot out; It speaks deceit; Onespeaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, But in his heart he lies in wait.”Jeremiah 9: 8.

"There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely, or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands." Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere’s Fan

Young men and women are desperately looking for inner peace, honesty, wholeness :

"I start to feel like I can't maintain the facade any longer, that I may just start to show through. And I wish I knew what was wrong. Maybe something about how stupid my whole life is. I don't know. Why does the rest of the world put up with the hypocrisy, the need to put a happy face on sorrow, the need to keep on keeping on?... I don't know the answer, I know only that I can't. I don't want any more vicissitudes, I don't want any more of this try, try again stuff. I just want out. I've had it. I am so tired. I am twenty and I am already exhausted." Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation.

7. Philosophy of focussing on the goal, giving undivided attention“Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.”

True attention is not artificial, and is never produced by externally imposed discipline. A full focus is the consequence of being loved and appreciated, but protected from unworthy attractions.

"Calm like robots, never opening their mouth, they become instantly insolent and rascals, what they were all the time. This is even more evident if they were more constrained.”Mme Maria Boschetti-Alberti

Our modern technology presents a real challenge to the concept of undivided attention

8. Philosophy of preparation“Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.”

“The understanding of this rule is dependent on the right interpretation of סלפ which means neither "weigh off" (Ewald) nor "measure off" (Hitzig, Zckler).

has once, in Psalm 58: 3 the meaning to weigh סלפout, as the denom. of סלפ, a level, a steelyard; (Note: The Arabic word teflıs, said to be of the same signification (a balance), to be a word devoid of all evidence.) Everywhere else it means to make even, to make level, to open a road: vid., under Isaiah 26: 7; 40: 12…

… The admonition thus refers not to the careful consideration which measures the way leading to the goal which one wishes to reach, but to the preparation of the way by the removal of that which prevents unhindered progress and makes the way insecure.” Keil and Delitzsch

Good preparation is almost the guarantee of success.

By the quality of our preparation we demonstrate where our heart is.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin

“There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won’t happen.” Kay Redfield Jamison

9. Philosophy of selectiveness“Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.”

“Not everyone can be trusted. I think we all have to be very selective about the people we trust.” Shelley Long

We need to help children to become very selective, maintaining excellence in all aspects of their life:

“I'm easily satisfied with the very best”.Winston Churchill

10. Philosophy of a global approachThe ears, the eyes, the heart, the mouth, the lips and the legs. Each limb of the body must be directed to the pursuit of the meaning of life

A teacher affects eternity; he/she can never tell where his influence stops.Henry B Adams

Proverbs4: 20 – 27

Dragan Stojanovic