So in our previous post, Nate was curled up in the chair by the window looking up Brother’s Questions – He had a few of his own that he wanted to discuss.

It went something like this –

Hey mom.  I was reading this morning in Proverbs. And it talked about –
(Cue Mom rolling eyes, because he is supposed to be looking up Speculated – Not finding things to do on his Ipod – even if the distraction is God’s Holy Word. Just sayin’.)

Strangers, and foreigners and it all ended up with your flesh being eaten.  . . . .
(Now he has Jon’s attention and I’m thinking the “eating poisonous mushrooms” triggered a memory of his reading this passage)

So he reads this part aloud –

¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
   and your^(N) labors go to the house of a foreigner,
¹¹and at the end of your life you^(O) groan,
   when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹²and you say,^(P) “How I hated discipline,
   and my heart^(Q) despised reproof!
¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
   or incline my ear to my instructors.
^14(R) I am at the brink of utter ruin
   in the assembled congregation.”

I grab his Ipod Touch and scroll back up through the Olive Tree App to put the paragraph in context.  Yes – it is talking about a Forbidden Woman. Reading through the first nine verses –

^1(A) My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
^(B) incline your ear to my understanding,
²that you may keep^(C) discretion,
   and your lips may^(D) guard knowledge.
³For the lips of^(E) a forbidden^[a] woman drip honey,
   and her speech^[b] is^(F) smoother than oil,
⁴but in the end she is^(G) bitter as^(H) wormwood,
^(I) sharp as^(J) a two-edged sword.
⁵Her feet^(K) go down to death;
   her steps follow the path to^[c] Sheol;
⁶she^(L) does not ponder the path of life;
   her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And^(M) now, O sons, listen to me,
   and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸Keep your way far from her,
   and do not go near the door of her house,
⁹lest you give your honor to others
   and your years to the merciless,

And we talk about how – the road didn’t need to be taken, of why we want him to read Proverbs each day – and of how so many people told this young man about the Forbidden Woman and his family must have gave him advice that he wouldn’t listen to.

And that’s when his eyes registered understanding. And you could see the knowledge and wisdom crashing together – and my heart swelled as I saw the Word being engraved on this little boy’s heart – And then. .. .

He blurted out how it all made sense.

“It’s just like Billy’s Brother and that girlfriend of his”.  WHAT??? Billy. On Billy the Exterminator? Do you watch this crazy family on Neflix? I’m not saying you should, but hubby and the boys LOVE it. It enables more blog reading for me, so I LOVE it too. (sheepish grin). Anyways – towards the end of Series 1, (Spoiler alert – don’t read this intriguing drama if you are watching it) Billy’s brother has a girl friend that has only come back around because of the money the show has created for their business, and the entire family has been warning him, and that previous evening, unbeknownst to me – she left him, took all of his money, and now he’s standing around wondering what went wrong. (I’m sure y’all needed to know all of that)

Anyways – Nate goes on and on for quite a few minutes matching up the verses of Proverbs 5 with what he has seen unfold between Billy’s parents and the boys – and comes up with a triumphant grin – and the assurance to me that he’ll listen to Grandpa and his parents about the girls he dates.  Whew. Good. to. Hear.

Sigh. (Can we get back to poisonous mushrooms and looking up words now?)