Raising Kids in the Age of Foolishness

There are too many fools in the world!

Raising Kids in The Age of Foolishness: Prudence, Knowledge, and Discretion

Proverbs 1:4 “To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion.”

If you want to produce a wise man from a naïve child, you must instill in them these three traits, prudence, knowledge and discretion. Do you know the difference between the three?

Prudence is the ability to trap something or to avoid a trap. It is the anticipation of the outcome of a certain behavior. If you want to trap a wild animal, you must know how your action will result in dinner. “If I do this, then this will likely occur.” It works in reverse. “If someone lays a trap for me, here is how I can avoid it.” Anticipation of outcomes, positive or negative, is prudent. Parents must train their children to recognize the traps, the landmines, and the scams of the world.

Knowledge is awareness. It may be situational awareness as demonstrated in prudence, or it might be awareness of how things work. Those who succeed in life are those who know how things work. Parents have a responsibility not only to teach children about the way things work, but to instill in them a desire and curiosity to discover how things work. This goes beyond mechanical things. It applies to systems as well. It applies to finances. It applies to politics. It applies to spiritual matters.

Discretion is the ability to plan. Once a person understands the consequences of an action, is aware of how things work, then they can devise a plan to accomplish their goal. Compare it to playing chess. If you are going to succeed at chess you must understand how you can become trapped. You must also understand how all the pieces move. With these two understandings, then you can devise a plan to win the game.

Present your child with a situation. Ask them three questions. 1) What are the potential traps in this situation? 2) In this situation, how do things work? 3) What is your plan to succeed in this situation now that you see the traps and understand how things work?  THERE ARE ENOUGH FOOLS IN THE WORLD.