Righteous Fruit

We’re looking at how Proverbs 11:30 informs our parenting.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and whoever captures souls is wise.
(Proverbs 11:30 ESV)

Parents must be soul-winners. Yes, God saves souls. But God uses parents, He works through you, to get to your kids’ hearts. Your sons’ and daughters’ souls have loves to order and loyalties to layer. It’s wise to pursue the souls God has given you as offspring.

There are many ways to win; wise men learn the ways, master their craft. But before we talk tactics, take a look at the first half of the verse. The two lines in verse 30 are parallel, helping to explain each other.

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” It gets more odd if you slow down. The expected order would be: the tree of the righteous bears the fruit of life. A tree produces fruit. But the proverb describes fruit that produces a tree. Then that tree also produces fruit, which is life. It is generational.

Do you want your kid to have life and be a life-giver? It’s not unlike wanting to win his soul, which is the Hebrew word nephesh, a different way of describing one’s life. Life = soul. Where does it come from? It’s the fruit of the righteous.

Before you pick the perfect chore chart app, deal with your heart. Before you make the discipline policies, are you disobedient? You can really only say and not do for so long until your kids know how to say and not do. The connection is inescapable, from conception, part of the covenant household.

Anxious parents make anxious kids. Angry men make angry sons, so also with the lustful. Parents who don’t want to be bothered will get kids who don’t bother with them, and yet people are still surprised. Holy parents raise humble kids. Worshipers make joyful little worshippers. The righteous see results in life.

As usual, it’s not what you preach but what you tolerate in yourself. It is also good, because you can repent for you. Such repentance can’t help but bear good fruit by God’s grace.