Proverbs 29:1
29:1 One who is often reproved, yet remains stubborn,
will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
It’s amazing to me how many life lessons we learn from watching the world around us. (That’s probably why Jesus often chose his illustrations from nature.) Try this one from your encounters with trees, bushes, and branches: bend – or you will break.
If a branch is still green and alive and pliable, you can bend it slowly and get it to move where you would like. If, however, a branch is too mature and inflexible (set in its ways), it will snap.
The writer of Proverbs saw that a little bending — being receptive to correction and going along with the rules – will keep something or someone from a catastrophic break:
One who is often reproved, yet remains stubborn,
will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
Sometimes we need to heed the advice that is given to us, so that we can be shaped for a better, more godly, life and not broken beyond healing.
Prayer
God, our Creator, keep making us in your image, and help us to accept some adjustments along the way. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
