Europe is on the brink of economic collapse.  How this will affect America is yet to be seen.  Yet, our nation is the largest debtor nation in the world, so Europe's troubles can't be good for America. The family is in worse shape than ever before (in the history of our nation).  Social unrest is growing in the cities.  The Baby Boom generation is retiring.  The Social Security fund is bankrupt.  The 30-something male crowd has never been more unmotivated and unproductive.  Twenty percent of men in their prime working age are unemployed up from 5% in 1950.  Birth implosions among the Europeans and Euro-Americans will rearrange entire civilizations.

Now what?

How do we prepare the next generation, who will live through the brunt of it all?  How do we prepare our children, who will very possibly live through the year 2075?  My answer is simple.  Teach your children God's Book of Wisdom.  TEACH THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

As I completed the 340 lessons on the Book of Proverbs contained in the Family Bible Study Guide Series, I was amazed at how almost every principle is ignored in the modern states.  In fact, the modern humanist societies provide literally thousands of illustrations where men have violated the laws of Wisdom.   At every point, whether it be banking, economies, political leadership, corporations, businesses, family life, health, human relationships, and sexuality, men have violated God's principles of wisdom, wholesale.  In fact, many of the lessons are so foreign to the modern mind (in our rich, developed nations), men would laugh at these "old-fashioned" notions.  When I would discourage churches and families from going into increased levels of debt to buy larger homes over the last several decades, it was rare to find any support for such a farfetched concept.  The Proverbs tell us, "The debtor is servant to the lender."  But what if you gave that wisdom to President George W. Bush or Barack Obama?  Would they zero out the deficits and abolish the fractional reserve, debt-based banking system?  Of course not!   Such lessons are considered irrelevant and impractical today.

Well, the time will come when the book of Proverbs, that old Book of Wisdom will vindicate itself.   In the words of Christ, wisdom will be justified by her children, every time.   And, I pray to God that our children will know the Book of Proverbs, cover to cover, inside and out when this happens.  They will need the Book of Proverbs to rebuild the walls, when this 200-year experiment in humanist wisdom collapses.

From my search on the Internet, our Family Bible Study Guide on Proverbs is the only comprehensive, verse-by-verse curriculum of its kind.  Rarely do you find a school that teaches children every verse in God's curriculum for the education of our sons and daughters.  If this is God's book on bestowing knowledge, understanding, and wisdom to a young man, you would think that our Christian colleges would have their students memorize the book.  You would think that they would give them this book as the core text for the education of a child (both for content and methodology).   Generally, they ignore the old, "useless" book.  But why do they ignore it?   They cannot see the relevance of God's book on education for "modern" private and public schools.  "It's not a good fit," they tell us.   At the core of it, they don't trust God's wisdom.  They wouldn't want to put the time and resources into teaching a useless, old book.

But we are counting on the fact that God is very smart!  We are 100% sure of it.  We are going to go with the presupposition that God made us and He knows how things work.  So we're just going to trust Him with this education business - the inculcating of wisdom, knowledge and understanding to young men and young women (Prov. 1:1-6).    It will be worth the investment, to take two years to study the Book of Proverbs every day with your family.  It will be well worth it, believe me.  Don't just teach it.  Use the discussion questions.  Bring out the applications, and work every lesson into the lives of your children.

All the while you inculcate these lessons, do not ignore the lesson of faith (Proverbs 3:5,6).  The just will live by faith, and it will take a well-grounded faith to live out the principles of God's Book of Wisdom.  Separating faith and works produces a worksoriented legalism on the one hand, or the American antinomian, watered-down, characterless, dead faith on the other.

In conclusion, here are the reasons why you should give your children a serious and comprehensive study on the Book of Proverbs:

#1 - You respect God and His wisdom, above all.

#2 - The Proverbs is comprehensive, covering all important subjects from epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics to science, health, politics, leadership, business, economics, banking, family, human relationships, and psychology.

#3 - The Proverbs weaves character into knowledge.  It does not separate faith and character from knowledge of God, ourselves, and the world around us.

#4 - The Proverbs is specifically designed for young men (and young women), as a Basic Course in Life.  It is Life 101.

#5 - The Proverbs is the basic book for discipleship for anybody and everybody (who has come to the knowledge of the truth in Christ, who is God's Wisdom).

#6 - The Proverbs have been largely ignored by huge educational and economic systems that are fast crumbling in the 21st century.

#7 - Your children will need the wisdom contained in the book of Proverbs if they are going to rebuild their socio-economic systems in the generations to come.  The Book of Proverbs transcends all places and times in human history, but there is more of a need for this instruction now than ever before.

#8 - You love your children and you want to equip them with wisdom before they leave your home.