Leading by following - Proverbs 14:26

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Proverbs 14: "26 He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress,
and for his children it will be a refuge."

This verse out of Proverbs 14 struck me this morning.

Here it is in the "Message" translation: 26 The Fear-of-God builds up confidence, and makes a world safe for your children.

I don't know that I've read this verse since becoming a father myself, and now, as I'm expecting my 2nd in December, my perspective on life has certainly changed. Being a parent makes me think both about what I want I value in my own upbringing as well as what I want to do and who I want to be for my own children.

Setting this foundation for my children is something I want to do, and something my parents did for me. I know that this foundation helped me tremendously over the years. One thing about this verse that I think is interesting, is that it doesn't talk about instilling the Fear of God into your children, but rather it implies leading by example. It implies that if we have this in our own lives, our children become benefactors.

I have often said in relation to leadership the following: "In order to lead others, you must first lead yourself." In looking at this Scripture, I suppose a more biblical perspective would be to say: "In order to lead others (in this case children), you must first lead yourself by following God."