**The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.** Proverbs 31:1
In most Western nations, May is the month to celebrate Mothers. I hope each of you had some special time with your children in the past week or so. Maybe you are like me and your children live far away. Maybe some of you have children that are waiting for you in heaven. But with or without that special dinner or family time, May is a good time to reflect on what we want to teach our children or what we wished we had taught our children when they lived in our homes. And even though my children are all grown, I love to continue to learn about child raising and how I can make a positive impact on my grandchildren while still encouraging my adult children to grow in faith and wisdom.
This final chapter of Proverbs is dedicated to Solomon’s mom and to her words of wisdom and instruction to him. I think it is fitting and shows Solomon’s sincerity in dedicating this whole chapter to his mother’s teachings because he tells us several times to not forsake the instruction of our parents. It is his way of honoring her, a woman that was not given much consideration or value in her lifetime.
We will be talking about Bathsheba and what kind of conversations she might have had with Solomon, and we will take some time to reflect on what it must have been like to be a woman in the times of the Kings.
Bathsheba’s first child with King David did not survive childhood. That time of loss and mourning must have given her time to think over her life, her priorities, her mistakes and her hopes for Solomon’s life. I believe that this chapter is about those meditations.
We’ll be looking at her life and her teachings over the next several days. I hope you will join me as we learn together about a woman that I believe has gotten a lot of bad press over the years.
Happy Mother’s Day to you all! God bless you and your dear family!