Living the Proverbs by Charles Swindoll is a companion devotional to his book
Living the Psalms. Each work provides a daily reading plan to last 26 weeks, such that together they provide one year of lessons. For me I tended to read several day's worth of devotionals in one sitting and would often read a bit in the morning and then again in the evening. Swindoll's approach to the Proverbs was not to work his way in an exhaustive, pedantic manner through each and every chapter and verse of these bible passages. Instead he grouped together similar-themed verses from different chapters for each week's discussion. These discussions included topics covering a broad range of relevant behaviors and concerns of the human condition such as:
- Shallowness
- Disobedience
- Worry
- Lust
- Laziness
- Addiction
- Revenge
- Knowledge vs. wisdom
- Financial responsibility
Several times in the past I have read through the book of Proverbs and always viewed it as sort of a collection of pithy Chinese fortune cookie-type fodder. However, Swindoll managed to weave together devotionals that transformed these verses from a loose collection of wisdom bits and pieces into something more complete and approachable. I certainly enjoyed my time in both of these books. They served as a great companion to my devotional times.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction", Proverbs 1:8
