Wrong Book

Background: Some of my friends have been reading classic children’s chapter books to their kids. I have to get in on this, only good things can come out of reading to your kids, right?

Good things come out of you reading the right book, and I chose the wrong book. The first chapter depicted a child smoking a pipe, sneaking out of the house and choosing hell over heaven, and the mention of slaves in terms that should have stayed in the times that book was written. I chose the wrong book. Well, why did you chose the book, one might ask. Out of ignorance. The story was one that I vaguely remembered from childhood as a movie and I thought it would be filled with adventure that my boys could gravitate to. When I shared this with one of my friends, she immediately confirmed that I chose the wrong book.

Proverbs 31v16: She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard.

So according to this verse, I was trying to plant a vineyard on a field that I bought, but didn’t inspect. Now buying a field is a good thing, but if you buy a raggedy field that will produce no yield, then you’ve made a bad investment. Think about all the scenarios that this verse encompasses. Marriage is the first one that comes to my mind. Marriage pays great dividends, but if thorough investigation of your mate was not completed prior to marriage, you could be in for a huge disappointment. Our careers are another area where we have to inspect the field before we buy into it. I love how there are reviews on just about anything you spend money on. If you’re looking to travel to an international resort, you can read hundreds of reviews that can help you make your choice. If you are purchasing a new appliance, others can tell you that it has a problem with a certain piece and that a maintenance bill would be in your future.

Let’s say I got the right book, but just let the book sit on the table and never read it to my children. This is just as bad as getting the wrong book.  I would have the right field but fail to plant a vineyard. There are so many opportunities that present themselves to us on a daily basis and we know which ones will profit us and which ones will cause cost us. But even in taking advantage of a good opportunity, the costs must be weighed. A good opportunity may not be good at that moment, but a few months down the line it could be one of the best decisions you made. Inspecting opportunities is evidence of a wise person. Most opportunities come with some sort of gain, but it takes a wise person to think beyond the prospect of gain and tease out the details that could cause demise.

I’m not going to give up on reading the chapter books just because I made a wrong choice the first time. I’m going to do some research and find a less controversial children’s classic, and read to my boys. I’m after the vineyard that will blossom from me reading to them.

References: Proverbs 31:16