Series: Wisdom That Works
Message: Two Paths
Preacher: Jenniffer Ogden
Reflection: Mark Witas
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Jessyka Dooley
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Kyle Smith
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Proverbs 4:1-27 in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you” (Proverbs 4:25).
I can be easily distracted. I wrote that sentence two days ago.
I liked Carol. She was pretty. And she was on the back of my motorcycle on 196th Street in Lynnwood, Washington. We were on our way into town to get something to eat when I stopped behind a VW Bug, which was stopped at a red light on the bridge going over Interstate 5. As the light turned green the VW Bug started to go just as Carol said something to me that I didn’t hear well. As I started down the road I turned my head to ask Carol to repeat herself. As I did, the VW in front of me stalled. Since I wasn’t looking in front of me, but instead into Carol’s beautiful eyes, I plowed right into the back of the VW, leaving a large dent in one fender. I let my gaze drift and I got in trouble.
In sports, where your eyes go is everything. In baseball and golf, you have to keep your eye on the ball if you want to connect well with it. In football, one of the greatest mistakes a wide receiver can make is to not look the ball into his hands. You’ll see a perfectly thrown pass dropped by a normally sure-handed receiver when he looks up field to run before looks the ball into his hands. One way a quarterback throws off a defender is to look him off. He’ll look one way and throw the other. In sports it’s really important to have your eyes looking in the right direction.
What is true in sports is also true in character development. Even though the Bible doesn’t say, “By beholding you become changed,” it’s true. The things we surround ourselves with, the things we set our eyes on, the things we allow our thoughts and brains to dwell on, certainly change us into a resemblance of what we are beholding. That’s why it’s so important, as the writer of Hebrews would say, to fix our eyes upon Jesus. When we fix our eyes on Jesus we become like what our gaze is fixed upon.
Recalibrate: How can focusing on the right thing pay off in good ways? How can dwelling on the wrong things compromise character?
Respond: Pray these words: “Jesus, keep my eyes on You.”
Research: Meditate on Hebrews 12:2.
Remember: “I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths” (Proverbs 4:11, ICB).
Mark Witas is the lead pastor at Sunnyside Adventist Church in Portland, Oregon.
Play a game of What Am I Looking At? This is kind of like Eye Spy for little kids. Ask your child if they can tell what you are looking at by following your eyes. If your child is very small, play rolling your eyes with them, opening your eyes wide and them shutting them tight. See if they can follow your eyes, watching what you are doing. Pray that we will have eyes to see what God has for us today. He has plans for good for all of us, so let’s look for what is good.
Have you ever heard a grown up say they felt “stressed?” What does that word usually mean? What do they look like when they’re stressed? Have you ever felt stressed? What caused it? How did it make you feel? The Bible uses a different word for stress in Proverbs; it uses the word “overwhelmed.” Find something heavy to carry around your shoulders. Walk around for as long as you can with that item on your back. Was it fun or easy to walk around with all that weight? That’s what being overwhelmed can sometimes feel like. The Bible says that wisdom comes and picks all that weight off your shoulders so you can live free and not feel stressed or overwhelmed!
In my family, I am the one who does the grocery shopping and cooks the meals. And I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, in the last five years I have been at the supermarket, I have never seen on the shelves any “bread of wickedness” or “wine of violence.” And yet both those items seem to be a possibility in Solomon’s time (Proverbs 4:17). While those items may not be things I can actually purchase at the store, I do believe Solomon is speaking about real things that exist in our world today. Imagine that you are given a cookbook and asked to make a meal from its contents. Seeing as it’s fall, you might go with a nice thick stew, a loaf of crusty bread, and a pumpkin-spiced drink, if you were attempting to show your family how much you cared for them.
But what if your intention was to show someone how much you despised them? You would probably make the same things, only you would eat them all yourself while thinking about how much you couldn’t stand them. And that food would fuel your anger and feed your negativity. So even though the recipe doesn’t contain anything related to wickedness or violence, that bread and drink do when they enter into you.
Sometimes it isn’t the recipe that makes food turn sour; it’s the person partaking of it that changes its composition.
What are some ways you might be using your food for fuel to create wickedness rather than grace? How might you go about using your lunch today to fuel you up for good rather than bad?
Life is a lot like riding a bike. If you focus on the potholes and trash on the side of the road, you will end up hitting it! That is because we go where we are focused.
What are you fixated on? What are your eyes looking at? What goal do you want to hit?
Fix your eyes on it! When we fix our eyes on something we will almost always run into it. That is why it is said, “Fix your eyes on the moon and if you don't make it, you will land among the stars.” That cheesy line is actually pretty true. Don’t let distractions cause you to lose sight of what God has called you to do. Whether it is high school, college, work, or relationships, stay focused. We live in a time where it is harder than ever to focus.
Here is some advice; Put the phone down, log out of Snapchat and Instagram for a few days, take your headphones out of your ears, and focus on getting to your destination.
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Jessyka Dooley is assistant youth director for the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Denver, Colorado.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Kyle Smith is the associate pastor of youth and family ministries at New Haven Adventist Church in Overland Park, Kansas.