My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right (Proverbs 23:15).

The 23rd chapter of the Proverbs reads like the kind of conversation that you'd have with your kid on the drive up to drop him off at college, ready to begin his life outside of the home in which he was raised.  Not the stuff about checking into the residence halls or enrolling in classes, or even about remembering to brush teeth, pay bills, do homework.  It's a conversation that covers all the most important stuff in life -- the most essential information that gets passed from fathers to sons, from mothers to daughters.  It's about how to live with character and integrity.  It's about finding meaning in life and setting goals for the future.

As I examine my personal feelings for my own children -- imagining the kinds of things I might like to say to them on their way off to college -- I totally resonate with the fatherly wisdom of Proverbs 23.  In addition, I find it to be incredibly refreshing to have such a loving, fatherly reminder what how I really should be, do, and believe.  No matter how long it's been since my own getting-dropped-off-at-college moment in life, I need this sort of reminder on a regular basis.

What pleases a father the most is if his child's heart is wise and his child's lips speak, out of the overflow of the wisdom in his heart, what is right.

Notice:  it's not "if you're rich, then my heart will be glad."  In fact, the father of Proverbs 23 explicitly instructs his son to not wear himself out to get rich (v. 4) and to avoid the delicacies of the king's table (vv. 1-3).  It's not "if you're successful, then my heart will be glad."  On the contrary, we're not supposed to get caught up in the rat-race that the rest of the world seems so inclined to run (v. 17).  And it's not even "if you're happy, then my heart will be glad."  Sexual pleasures and intoxicants are specifically denounced in the second half of Proverbs 23.  No, above all else, the Father says, "if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right."  That's good stuff to remember, to use in re-prioritizing my life, and to reiterate to future generations as well.  It's how we really should be, do, and believe.