Our Heavenly Father Still Knows Best
On a recent off-highway drive across northern Middle Tennessee, Ray and I drove through tiny Orlinda. Last fall I encouraged mamas to teach their children to be the brightest spot in the room after learning on a similar drive that Orlinda claims to be the “Sunniest Spot in Tennessee.”
Orlinda always brings a smile to my heart. Besides being adorable, it brings back sweet memories. It isn’t far from where my mother grew up, and I remember her talking about Orlinda when I was a girl. Also, back in the early days of Notgrass History, our family performed A Walk Through Tennessee History in Story and Song for a homeschool group there. Here we are!
At a Community Center in Orlinda, Tennessee
An Orlinda church marquee caught my eye the other day. It read: Our Heavenly Father Still Knows Best.
The cultural reference is probably lost on most of the folks who drive by, but Ray and I remember it well. Father Knows Best was a television sitcom which ran from 1954 to 1960. In 203 shows, Jim and Margaret Anderson and their children Betty, Bud, and Kathy experienced the ups and downs of life. Like other sitcoms of the Golden Age of Television, the Andersons found solutions in 30 minutes.
Though not a realistic take on real life, I still like the title and its connotation that the father in the family knew best. Father—and mother, too—knowing best is certainly the message of Proverbs.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9
The problem of children not believing that their Father knows best began in the Garden of Eden when first Eve and then Adam ignored the clear teaching of their heavenly Father.
When the woman saw
that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that the tree was desirable to make one wise,
she took from its fruit and ate;
and she gave also to her husband with her,
and he ate.
Genesis 3:6
Eve wanted to be wise, but she didn’t want to learn wisdom from her heavenly Father.
Children who act as though their parents and their heavenly Father do not know best are wise in their own eyes. Proverbs warns against that again and again.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:7
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
Proverbs 12:15
Answer a fool as his folly deserves,
That he not be wise in his own eyes.
Proverbs 26:5
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 26:12
In other words:
There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12
As parents it is our responsibility to learn what is best from our heavenly Father who does indeed know best and teach His wisdom to our children. As our heavenly Father says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9