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Proverbs 1:8 NLT

'My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.'

As I wrestled with the reality of my own deeply flawed spirituality, I floundered in knowing how to hold on to God. I struggled to give expression to my inner pain and function in any way as a competent adult. I was like an uncontrollable child. Yet the problem did not lie with the parenting, it lay with the child’s disobedience.

Mum and I often laugh at our different approaches. With any purchase, she will take forever to read through all the instructions before approaching the appliance. I, on the other hand, tear open the box, set up the equipment and assume I can manage it with little or no recourse to instructions. We ignore the invitation to seek God at our peril. For it’s never when things are working that we struggle, but when things go wrong. Here I need to ensure that I am in touch with the instructions or I stand a chance of doing serious damage.

My own journey directed me back to the writings of the desert fathers and mothers. Men and women who went out to seek God in prayerful service and began to record the wisdom they accumulated individually and through their conversation together. Here is a source of much insight into how the word of God informs daily practice and service. It was their commitment to acknowledge that they were unable alone to discern all God had for them, and that pursuing God demanded changes in life and time styles.

I first established a routine in which I daily created space to encounter God. Initially this was always full of distractions and self-absorbing thoughts. But slowly I learned to wait with God in the silence, establish patterns of prayer and scripture encounter that led me deeper towards God’s heart. I also discovered an increasing appetite for God. I was not always fighting my natural inclination to avoid times of prayer or seeking to rush towards their conclusion. I also discovered the value of reading and studying the rich resource of the writings of those who had gone ahead of me and left a stockpile of valuable wisdom for my edification and spiritual growth.

QUESTION: Where do you turn to discover the wisdom of your mothers and fathers in the faith?

PRAYER: Lord, may your word shape my thoughts and deeds each day.