Water your own grass: Proverbs 5/6 | A Proverb A Day Challenge

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, Welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your host Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our faith based topics and deepening our relationship with
the Lord. And right now we are still going through
our a Proverb a Day series where we read a
proverb a day for our daily dose of wisdom. Today
we are gonna be on chapters five and six. I
had to double up today because I was unable to

(00:21):
record yesterday due to some kind of reaction I was having.
I thought it was kind of like an allergic reaction,
but i just have super sensitive skin, you guys. And
I'm still trying to get my perfect skincare routine because
I've been breaking out so bad the past two months.
I'm trying to perfect the perfect acne skincare routine. I
think I just got a little carried away with doubling

(00:42):
up on some products and then my face. I woke
up yesterday and it was puffy, like you know how
those SHARPAI dogs look, the ones with the rolls and
their faces look like squished them puffy. That's how I
was in. My face still looks a little puffy, but
I did a full face today, so you know I'm
looking presentable for church, but yeah, we're gonna do Proverbs
five and six today, and we're gonna do this before
we go to church. So let's get into it all right.

(01:04):
Let's read Proverbs five. My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion,
and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of
an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother
than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down

(01:26):
to death, her steps lay whole to hell. Lest you
ponder her path of life. Her ways are unstable, you
do not know them. Therefore hear me now, my children,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Remove your way far from her, and do not go
near the door of her house, lest you give your
honor to others and your years to the cruel one.
Lest aliens be filled with your wealth and your labors.

(01:47):
Go to the house of a foreigner, And you mourn
at last when your flesh is when your flesh and
your body are consumed. And say, how I have hated
instruction in my heart despised correction. I have not obeyed
the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to
those who instructed me. I was on the verge of
total ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation.

(02:09):
Drink water from your own cistern and running water from
your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams
of water in the streets, let them be only your own,
and not for strangers. With you, Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice with the wife of your youth, as a
loving dear and a graceful doe. Let her breast satisfy,
satisfy you at all times, and always be enraptured with

(02:31):
her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured
by an a moral woman and be embraced in the
arms of a seductress. For the ways of man are
before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all
his paths. His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and
he is caught in the chords of his sin. He
shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness
of his folly he shall go astray. So let's talk

(02:54):
about five before we get say six, we're gonna break
it up a little bit. So here Solomon is advising
against adultery. Of course, the title of chapter five and
my new King James version Bible is the peril of adultery.
And we all know that adultery is bad, but I
think some of us have to hear that more than once,

(03:15):
especially men. He's definitely addressing this, he says, my son,
So I think that men may struggle with adultery a
little bit more than women. I don't know how factual
that is. It just seems like it to me. When
you hear about cheating in a marriage, most of the
time it is the man, you know. So I think
that men definitely struggle with LUs a little bit more

(03:36):
more so than women. And he's just really cautioning his sons.
Verse eighteen says, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice
with the wife of your youth. And the verse that
really stuck out to me. I think the key verse
for me in Proverbs five is fifteen drink water from
your own sistern and running water from your own will.
And I really like that verse because that speaks to adultery,

(03:58):
but it also just speaks to a lot of different
components of life. And I think what that versus telling
us is be satisfied with what you have. Drink water
from your own cistern and running water from your own will.
Be satisfied with what you have, and take care of
what you have. Don't always try to jump ship into
the next thing because you think the grass is greener

(04:20):
or it looks better on that side. And that's really
what adultery is. You have your own wife, but you
feel like someone else. You know, the grass is greener.
Maybe you know how they say the eighty twenty rule.
Your wife is giving you eighty, but you're missing that twenty.
Stay where you are supposed to stay, and water your
own grass. That grass is green because they water that grass.
Water your grass where you're at. And first Timothy Paul says,

(04:44):
contentment with Godliness is a great gain when you are
content with God gave you, and God gives you, know, marriage,
God takes a very seriously. So the Lord is in
these ceremonies at least he should be right. That's the
ideal way. Just be satisfied with what the Lord gives
you right now, and that could be a lesson for
all areas of our life. So often if we're single

(05:07):
single women, we fantasize about the lives that we would
have once we get married, about the things that we
could do finally once we get married, about the romantic
life that we're missing out on. But there's so much
that we have in our singleness that when we get
married will miss that, you know. Like, so I feel like,
as humans is just in our nature to always see

(05:28):
lack in our lives. We never see the fulfillment of
what we have right now. We're always looking for the
next thing, and we never sit in the contentment of
what we have right now. But when you water your
own grass, when you make sure that what the Lord
has given you right now that you're ministering to it well,
that you're taking care of it, well, that's when true
contentment comes in. If you're always looking at what your

(05:49):
neighbor has, if you're always looking for the next step
of life, when are you ever enjoying life? Because there's
always a next step. I know. For parents, they say,
you know, if they really want children, the like, oh,
I really want children, and then they have children and
then they're like babies and they're like, oh, I can't
wait until they are able to walk, and then they're
able to walk in you know, they're toddlers getting into everything,
and then they say, oh, I can't wait till they

(06:10):
grow up and they behave. And then they grow up
and they behave, and then they're out the house, you know,
and then the parents are like, man, I wish when
I still have my little baby. So it's like, that's
just our nature. We always want the next step. But
contentment with Godliness is great gain. And when you take
care of what God has you right now, not only
does that bring you happiness right now in your life,

(06:30):
but that also prepares you for the next step. If
God don't see that you're taking care of what he
gave you right now, how can he give you what's
coming later on. That reminds me of another verse Luke
sixteen ten. It says he who is faithful in what
is least is faithful also and much, And he who
is unjust in what is least is also unjust also

(06:52):
and much. And I've had to apply that in my
own life to where I feel like I have lack
and I'm like, well, the little that I do have
right now, now, am I taking care of it? Because
every big thing comes from something that's small. Every great
responsibility is taken care of will because that person was
able to take care of small responsibilities. So we just

(07:12):
have to be grateful and content with the season, the things,
the partner, the children, whatever the Lord has given you.
Right now, you water that you take care of that.
But all in all, I just see proverbs five as
just a warning to men. Don't always think it's better
over there with the other woman. Stay with the wife

(07:32):
of your youth, water your own grass. This is what
God commands you to do. So we can pretty much
move on to proverb six. We'll read through that, get
a key verse and proverb six. I really do like
this chapter. It's a little bit longer, but we're gonna
read through it and talk about our favorite portion, all right.
So proverb six, my son, if you become surety for

(07:58):
your friend, if you have shaken hands and pledge for
a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth.
You are taken by the words of your mouth. So
do this, my son, and deliver yourself, for you have
come into the land of your friend. Go and humble yourself,
plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes,
nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle

(08:18):
from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird
from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, you, sluggard,
consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain,
overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and
gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber,
oh sluggard, When will you arise from your sleep? A
little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the

(08:40):
hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come on you
like a prowler, and your need like an armed man,
a worthless person. A wicked man walks with a perverse mouth.
He winks with his eyes, and he shuffles his feet,
he points with his fingers. Perversity is in his heart.
He devises evil continually, he sows discoord Lord. Therefore his

(09:01):
calamity shall be shall come suddenly, suddenly, he shall be
broken without remedy. These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven,
are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that are swift, and running to evil, a false

(09:21):
witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
My son, keep your father's command, and do not forsake
the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart,
Tie them around your neck when they roam. When you roam,
they will lead you. When you sleep, they will keep you,
And when you awake they will speak with you. For

(09:42):
the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light.
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life. To keep
you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of
a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart,
nor let her allure you with her eyelids. For by
means of a harlot, a mine man is reduced to
a crust of bread, and an adulteress will prey upon

(10:03):
his precious life. Can a man take fire to his
bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk
on hot coals in his feet not be seared? So
is he who goes into his neighbor's wife, whoever touches hers,
shall not be innocent. People do not despise a thief
if he steals to satisfy himself. When he is starving.
Yet when he has found, he must restore, restore sevenfold.

(10:27):
He may have to give up all the substance of
his house. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding.
He who does so destroys his own soul, wounds and
dishonor he will get and his reproach will not be
wiped away, For jealousy is a husband's fury. Therefore he
will not spear in the day of vengeance. He will
not accept recompense, nor will he be appeasedat though you

(10:49):
give him many gifts. So I read a little ahead,
and I also read proverb seven, and will of course
go through proverb seven tomorrow. But proverb seven is also
about adultery. And I find it very interesting that Solomon,
of all people, the notorious womanizer that had over seven
hundred wives right that ultimately led to him strang away

(11:13):
from his relationship with God. I find it very interesting
that he's the one that's talking so heavily against adultery,
because mirroring several wives is adultery, Like adultery isn't just
having one wife and then you cheat on her. Adultery
is also polygamy. That's also adultery. You get one wife.

(11:34):
You know, the Lord didn't give Adam several eves in
the garden of Eden. He gave him one wife. If
it was okay for men to marry several women, the
Lord would have gave Adam that option, don't you think.
But he gave him one woman. And for Solomon, I
have seven wives, seven hundred wives. Sorry. I think it's
very interesting that he's the one that keeps hammering adultery.

(11:55):
But maybe it's because he was learning his lesson along
the way. I'm not really sure the timeline of when
the proverb's got and I guess I can look into it,
But the timeline of when the proverb's goritten versus the
timeline of when he was marrying multiple wives a day,
it seems like I just think it's very funny. But
chapter six has a lot of information. I really like

(12:16):
this chapter because it touches on various subjects within the chapter.
The chapter starts off verses one through five with Solomon
and basically warning us against making promises. Making promises, I
guess that we can't keep promises that are hard to keep.
But I think all in all, he's just warning people
against making promises to begin with, and I kind of
thought like, hmm, that's kind of like, we're like, what's

(12:38):
wrong with making a promise to someone? But then I
thought about some reference versus versus that I had in
mind when I was thinking about just making promises that
you can't keep. Let's go to Matthew. Starting in Matthew
five thirty three, it says again you have heard that
it was said to those of old, you shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.
But I say to you, do not swear at all,

(13:00):
neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth,
for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great King. Nor shall you
swear by your head, because you cannot make one here
white or black. But let your yes be yes, and
your no be no. For whatever is more than these
is from the evil One, So Jesus. Here in Matthew
we see him saying, you don't need to swear to anything.

(13:22):
And when I think about a promise, it pretty much
is a swear, like I swear to do this, I
promise that I'm going to do this, and Jesus is saying,
you don't need to do that. Just let your yes
be yes, your no be no for the right now,
because you don't know your future. You don't know what's
going to happen tomorrow. And that brings me to another
verse that popped into my mind. In James and James
four thirteen. It says, come now, you who say today

(13:45):
or tomorrow we will go to such and such cities,
spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit,
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For
what is your life, It is even a vapor that
appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead,
you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall
live and do this or that. But now you boast
in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So James

(14:06):
and Jesus are saying, when you make promises about the future,
that comes from the evil one, that's evil. And Solomon
is saying the same thing here. If you become surety
to your friend, you are sneered by the words of
your mouth. When we don't know what our tomorrow is,
and not one person can raise their hand and say
for sure what they will be doing tomorrow because you
can make a plan, right, You can make a plan

(14:29):
and God will be like, now you're gonna do this instead,
and then what becomes of that plan Absolutely nothing. So
it's better for us to just live in the every day,
just doing what we're supposed to be doing. Don't make promises.
Promises are hard to keep, and then you break your promise,
and then what good is your word? As Christians, we
should be honorable, more honorable than the people around us.

(14:50):
Others they make promises that they can't keep. It doesn't
really mean anything, but we should be people of integrity,
and just to have some assurance for yourself, just to
make sure you don't get caught up in your word
not meaning anything. Don't make promises. Just every single day, yes, yes, no, no,
And that's it. And then we get into verses six

(15:11):
through eleven, and Solomon is warning against sloth. He's warning
against being a sluggard. He says, look at the end,
they reap and they sew, and no one is telling
them to do it. They just know to do it.
You should be the same, because this says a little sleep,
a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. So
shall your poverty come on you like a prowler. It's
gonna creep up on you. And I get that you

(15:32):
take your relaxation days too serious. You're YO low days
too serious, your self care days too serious. Not only
is money flying out of your pocket, but it's very
hard to recoup at the rate that you're spending it,
Poverty will come upon you. My friend and I talked
about this a little bit on my TikTok just the
other day, where I was talking about how just me
being the oldest sibling of a large family kind of

(15:54):
and two separate families, I did not grow up with money.
Like my parents were not been able to give me
a dime for college. They always told me, if you
want to go to college, you have to pay for
it yourself. They did not even want to sign off
on like co sign for a loan. Like I had
to work to go to college. I've always had to
work because my parents. I didn't grow up with money.

(16:15):
I had teenage parents that had to kind of you know,
they weren't able to attain higher education right outside of
high school because they had me in high school and
my dad went to the military. My mom got a
full time job, and these were just people that just
you know, there was no college fund, there was no
trust fund, there was no money set aside for me.
Like we were hustling every day just to make the bills.

(16:37):
So now that I'm grown and I have my own money,
it feels like I deserve this for my own money,
Like it feels like self care. It feels like I
deserve this. I was always having to deny myself looking
around and seeing what everybody else has. I mean, guys,
like there were years in school that I was not
I was not able to afford new school clothes for
this school year. Like I was wearing the same school

(16:59):
clothes from last year, the same dirty sneakers from over
the summer. My friends would be like, when you're getting
you new school clothes because you know, like in black schools,
you know, the kids show up to school like every year,
like with fresh stuff, like they fresh to death, like
that first week of school, you know. But my parents
were able to afford that, so I would just like
I'll be with the same beat up book bag and
the same you know, sneakers. I kind of got bullied

(17:20):
for it a little bit, like when definitely when I
was in middle school. I think middle school is when
children are the meanest, Like, it's when children are at
their absolute most rotten. So yeah, that was just my
reality so growing up. And now I have money, Oh girl,
I'm spending it like I stole it. And I did
that for several years, and God had me in a
season this year of no increase of sitting me down

(17:43):
and being like, listen, you need to stop, like you
need to learn to steward your money. Well, you need
to learn to work a little bit harder, stay busy.
Stop with all this self care nonsense. You know, I
felt like I was healing my inner child by spending.
And that wasn't it, y'all? It wasn't it. So I

(18:04):
definitely related to verses six through eleven. But the portion
of chapter six that I think I love the most
is sixteen through nineteen. And let's read that again. These
six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination
to him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that
shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet

(18:25):
that are swift and running to evil, a false witness
who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren,
I like those verses just because I like learning about
who God is. We talked I think previous episode or
the one before that, to where I just like learning
about God's personality. We talked a little bit about how

(18:45):
he is a craftsman, an artist, He values beauty. He
is the creator of the world. I mean everything that
we see around us, the ocean, waves, the sand on
the beach, he created all of that. And I like
knowing that him. I like knowing who God is, not
just in theory, not in just oh, he's the ruler

(19:05):
of the universe. I like knowing his personality. And I
think when we read things like this, we get to
see more of who God actually is. What are the
seven things that he hates? And when I'm looking at
these seven things, I'm like, Okay, let me make sure
that that's not something that I do in my daily life.
Let me make sure that I don't have a proud look.
I'm looking down on people, a lying tongue, hands that

(19:26):
shed innocent blood. I'm not devising wicked plans. I'm not
always running towards drama. I'm not always looking at TV
shows that portray drama. None of that. Baddies, You know,
like a false witness who speak lies one who sows discord.
I'm not always in drama. I'm not always causing trouble
up stirring the pot like they like to say. So
that was definitely my favorite portion of scripture, just because,

(19:49):
like I said, I like learning who God is. And
then the rest of the chapter is Solomon once again
warning against adultery. So that pretty much wraps up Proverbs
five and leave your key versus or a portion of
scripture that you really appreciated, that really stuck out to
you in the comments, And I will see you guys tomorrow.
For proverb seven, I'll see you bright and early in

(20:11):
the morning. I like doing my weekend episodes a little
bit later because I don't I get up relatively early,
I guess seven days of the week, but I sleep
in a little bit more on the weekends when I
don't have to be, you know, hustle and bustle doing stuff.
So I put out the weekend episodes a little bit later.
But we will be back on track posting by eight
thirty in the morning, so that you guys can get

(20:33):
a little dose of whatever you need before you start
your day. And yeah, so I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Love you guys. Get to church. It's not too late.
A lot of churches start at eleven. My church starts
at eleven. If you were not planning to go to
church physically today, it is not good enough that you
stay at home sis, Get up, get dressed, even if
you're late. That's better than not going at all. Go

(20:53):
to church today. Okay, I'll see you all tomorrow. Bye,