Everything You Should Learn from a Graduation Speech You can Find in Proverbs

As I write this blog entry my son will be graduating from high school tomorrow.  How did that happen already?!?  Being a Youth Pastor for many years I’ve been to more than my fair share of graduations.  I’ve heard some great speeches and I’ve heard some big time duds.  But I got to thinking if a graduation speaker really wanted to leave students with some good advice all they would have to do is take out a bible and start reading from the book of Proverbs.  Consider the following examples.

·        Don’t be stuck up and think you’re better than everyone else.  30:13

·        Leadership gains authority and respect when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.  29:14

·        If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.  28:26

·        You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.  28:13

·        Walk straight – live well and be saved; a devious life is a doomed life.  28:18

·        Committed and persistent work pays off; get-rich-quick schemes are rip-offs.  28:20

·        Justice makes no sense to the evil-minded; those who seek God know it inside and out.  28:5

·        It’s better to be poor and direct than rich and crooked.  28:6

·        God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him.  28:9

·        A nagging spouse is like the drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet; you can’t turn it off, and you can’t get away from it.  27:15-16

·        Don’t call attention to yourself; let others do that for you.  27:2

·        Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you want junk like that in your belly?  26:22

·        Smooth talk from an evil heart is like glaze on cracked pottery.  26:23

·        Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool; you’ll only look foolish yourself.  26:4

·        If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch; if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness, and God will look after you.  25:21-22

·        Like billowing clouds that bring no rain is the person who talks big but never produces.  25:14

·        Patient persistence pierces through indifference; gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses.  25:15

·        An honest answer is like a warm hug.  24:26

·        First plant your fields; then build your barn.  24:27

·        Don’t talk about your neighbors behind their backs – no slander or gossip, please. 24:28

·        One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a lout; they were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down. I took a long look and pondered what I saw; the fields preached me a sermon and I listened: A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy – do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, with poverty as your permanent house guest!  24:30-34

·        Fear God, dear child – respect your leaders; don’t be defiant or mutinous. 24:21

·        It’s better to be wise than strong; intelligence outranks muscle any day.  24:5

·        Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels: soak yourself in the Fear of God – That’s where your future lies.  Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing.

·        Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat.  Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.  23:20-21

·        Listen with respect to the father who raised you, and when your mother grows old, don’t neglect her.  23:22

·        Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself!  Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder.  23:4-5

·        Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones; a spanking won’t kill them. A good spanking, in fact, might save them from something worse than death.  23:13-14

·        Observe people who are good at their work – skilled workers are always in demand and admired; they don’t take a backseat to anyone.  22:29

·        Don’t hang out with angry people; don’t keep company with hotheads.  Bad temper is contagious - don’t get infected.  22:24-25

·        Watch your words and hold your tongue; you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.  21:23

·        Sinners are always wanting what they don’t have; the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.  21:26

·        Do your best, prepare for the worst – then trust God to bring the victory.  21:31

·        A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich; a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.  22:1

·        Simpletons only learn the hard way, but the wise learn by listening.  21:11

·        God hates cheating in the marketplace; rigged scales are an outrage.  20:23

·        Love and truth from a good leader; sound leadership is founded on loving integrity.  20:28

·        We justify our actions by appearances; God examines our motives.  21:1

·        Arrogance and pride – distinguishing marks in the wicked – are just plain sin.  21:4

·        Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty.  Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.  3:3

·        Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure everything out on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. 3:5-6

That should do it for now.  In case you didn’t notice, all I did was open my bible to Proverbs chapter 30 and I started going backwards selecting a couple verses from each chapter as I went.  I started to realize that even in doing this my blog would end up way too long, so I skipped to one of my favorite chapters (chapter 3) and threw in a couple more verses to finish this off.  I chose “The Message” translation for this particular endeavor.  To the graduates out there; I hope you have a good speaker at your graduation, but if you don’t just sneak out your cell phone and read this over again while you wait for him or her to finish up.  You can’t go wrong with life advice from Proverbs.