“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice. My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. For a harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim and increases the unfaithful among men” (Proverbs 23:24-28).
“Are you making your momma proud right now?”
In seventeen years of teaching in public schools, this question was the best inquiry I found to convince an unruly student to cease and desist his foolish behavior. It is a powerful query.
No right-thinking parent is proud of a son who is a whoremonger or a daughter who is a harlot. What exactly is there to be proud of—the lack of virtue and self-control? The folly of instant gratification? The increase of unfaithfulness? The degradation of personal integrity and self-respect? The shame of sin? The possibility of a sexually transmitted disease? The ruin of a good name given by your parents?
The young man Joseph made the right decision when Potiphar’s wife sought to entice him into defiling the marriage bed (Gen. 39:7-13). He avoided the deep pit and narrow well of fornication. Though his father Jacob was unaware of his actions when it happened in Egypt, Jehovah rejoiced that he chose to not “do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Gen. 39:9).
Are you making your heavenly Father proud when Satan tempts you with the lust of the flesh?
