By: Junha

Read: Leviticus 4:1-5:19, Mark 2:13-3:6, Psalm 36:1-12, Proverbs 10:1-2

A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.
(Proverbs 10:1)

Relate: I was in 7th grade when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. I had just transferred to a new school but had to begin my new school life attending online classes. Now, we all know how the story goes with online classes: it was an extremely low point in my life, as it was for many other students.

I had been an avid gamer even before online classes began, and being stuck inside my house 24/7 only made my habits worse. At first, my grades were holding up pretty well–I turned in homework on time and I was rarely absent for any of my classes. But then 8th grade came, and my habits got worse and worse. What was once a hobby slowly spiraled into a crippling video game addiction. My daily schedule started to look something like this:

Wake up at noon → Eat lunch → Play games → Eat dinner → More games into the night → Sleep at 3AM → Wake up at noon. 

Homework had no place in that schedule.. My grades began to plummet, but I couldn’t let my parents find out or else they would take away my video games, and I wasn’t gonna let that happen. So I found ways around it: 

I played video games with Google Meets open in the background.

I copied homework from my friends so I wouldn’t have to do any of them myself

I used my dad’s iPad to log into his school account and intercept any missing homework emails from my teachers

And the worst one of them all: I found a way to change my letter grades on our student information system. It only changed the letter but never changed my actual grade. All of this to deceive my parents into thinking I was doing well with school.

But of course, all my lies crumbled down on me a couple weeks before our middle school graduation. I showed my parents my grades, thinking it would be the last time, but they logged onto the system themselves and saw that my grades were different from what I just showed them. Long story short, that evening was a crucial point in my life and my relationship with my parents. That night, I was a foolish son that brought grief to my parents. 

React: Proverbs 10:1 Teaches that a wise son brings joy to his parents, fulfilling one of the Ten Commandments.. Wisdom means to have experience, knowledge, and good judgement. But how can we act in wisdom towards our parents? This proverb suggests that true wisdom is motivated by love. A wise person understands what brings joy to their parents from experience, knowledge, and good judgement and chooses to do so out of love. In contrast to the wise son, I acted in foolishness and selfishness towards my parents. All I cared about was playing video games and went to great lengths to deceive them because I lacked wisdom.

After many difficult conversations and lots of tears, I apologized to my parents and committed to improving myself. They took away my video game (of course) but more importantly, they also helped me get me back on track. This experience of deceit, guilt, and shame taught me a valuable lesson: To act in wisdom out of love. I know I shouldn’t deceive my parents because it brings them sorrow and breaks the trust between me and my parents. And I can make these judgements because of love. And I pray that everyone strives to live wisely not out of obligation, but out of love.

Respond:

Dear Jesus,
I thank you for the adventures you’ve given in life. I thank you that life isn’t a dull and meaningless story but a journey full of wonderful experiences. I thank you that these experiences shape us into who we are and I pray that our experiences will give us wisdom but most importantly, draw us closer to you God. I pray that we will all be motivated by love to act in wisdom.
Amen