“My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother” (v. 8). With these words, wisdom speaks in the cadence of home. The voice is neither severe nor distant, but intimate, formed by parental relationship and shaped through such love. Solomon presents obedience not as sterile compliance, but as filial attentiveness shaped within the bonds of family. Here, parental instruction becomes the ordinary means by which God Himself addresses the child. Through mothers and fathers, the Lord trains hearts to listen, to trust, and to walk reverently before Him. The household thus becomes the first sanctuary, the table the first place of teaching, and daily conversation the earliest form of catechesis. To disregard faithful parental counsel is to dull one’s hearing toward a voice that originates beyond the home.
God entrusts parents with more than provision. They’re stewards of formation (catechesis), shaping the inner life as carefully as they care for the body. The Hebrew word for “instruction,” musar (מוּסָר), carries the same sense of formative discipline—training that corrects because it loves. Likewise, “the law” (torah, תּוֹרָה) spoken of here is not mere rule keeping, but teaching passed on through faithful repetition, grounded in God’s revealed will. Such formation resists the modern romance of radical independence. Human beings are not self-made or self-sustaining; life itself is received. Parental instruction acknowledges this truth early, guiding children into a pattern of dependence rightly ordered toward God. Through fatherly counsel and maternal teaching, the Lord extends His own invitation: to walk the path that leads to life.
“For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck” (v. 9). The image is deliberate and striking. Wisdom becomes adornment—visible, dignified, and enduring. What is learned at the knee of faithful parents doesn’t encumber the soul but ennobles it. Instruction shaped by the Word confers a beauty that doesn’t fade with age or circumstance. The garland Solomon describes isn’t decorative excess but cultivated character. It signals a life formed by reverence, discernment, and humility. Such wisdom doesn’t depreciate over time; it gathers weight and grace with each passing year.
Therefore, receive the words of a father who speaks God’s truth. Treasure the teaching of a mother who has set Christ before you. For those who did not grow up beneath such voices, hear the promise embedded within this proverb: Your heavenly Father continues to speak. His Word still instructs, still disciplines, and still adorns. Through Scripture proclaimed and received, He clothes the soul with wisdom that cannot tarnish and beauty that reflects His Son. In the fear of the Lord and the instruction of the wise, the soul is adorned with something richer than ornament—wisdom formed into God’s enduring likeness.
The Lutheran Column 