Proverbs 11:29

“Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.”

What does it mean to bring trouble to your household? First, it can be aggressive in nature. To fight and quarrel among your family, to be a source of conflict in the home. Second, it can also be passive trouble. Laziness and carelessness can cause an equal amount of trouble in your family. A home can be one of two things: a peaceful, harmonious place to live, or a painful, torturous environment. It seems like the former is what the home is meant to be and maybe what we think of first. But today we have become far too accustomed to home being chaotic and toxic to those involved.

My family has been a part of the foster care program for over a decade now. Growing up I was always getting to take care of children from toddlers who can talk to babies just out of the hospital. It was a wonderful experience for me as a young man to gain experience in caring for children. However, with this experience came the knowledge and awareness of what caused it. Broken homes, broken families, abuse, carelessness, selfishness: all these things played a part in tearing these kids away from their homes. And while being taken away might have been the best thing for those kids at the time, it should not be the end goal.

These parents who lose their babies are those that are “inheriting the wind”. They are the fools who made the biggest mistakes, and now they pay the price. The wind cannot be held, it cannot be caught, and it cannot be kept. It is taken from you as soon as it arrives. Families all around us are falling apart from the foolish choices of those who are supposed to lead them. I was blessed to be raised in a peaceful, joyful, and loving family all my life. I grew up under the roof of the “wise of heart”. Now I have the opportunity to bless those families who are in trouble by their own hand. Which family do you find yourself a part of? The troubled home or the peaceful one? And what can you do to help those who find themselves caught in the former?