The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding
Proverbs 9:10
In 2015 my husband began building our home on a piece of property we bought a few years prior. He has no background in building a house. He is, in fact, a preacher/teacher. When I say he “built” our home, I don’t mean what people usually mean when they say that. He did not hire an architect or a builder. He bought some software and designed our home himself. Every square inch involved an important decision.
Through every stage of the construction process, he had to make a decision to hire a specialist (such as laying the foundation or installing the electricity) or doing the work himself. Each step of the way was an experiment. Sometimes he (with my help and the help of our sons taking some vacation time to help) did the work and sometimes he was led (for practical and financial reasons) to get a bid from someone else. We prayed about it all and God was in every detail. For instance, having made our choice of flooring and ready to get the wood in order to do the work, we were led to get a quote that resulted in being less expensive than doing the work ourselves. As they say – no brainer! At that time, he was also experiencing pain with his knees and I know that God was gracious to arrange that blessing for us. Likewise, when he was ready to buy and stain the boards for the ceiling in our very high great room ceiling, our dearest friends couldn’t stand the thought of his installing that ceiling and told us they wanted to pay for the labor. We only stained the boards!
Throughout this process, I was amazed at God’s direction and provision. What I firmly believe happened was that God enabled my husband to research and gain the knowledge about the next step, understand what all that entailed and then exercise the wisdom about how to proceed.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge….the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments…the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7, Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 15:33). What seems like an abstract principle about what the fear of the Lord is became – right in front of my eyes – the evidence of that fear lived out in everyday life. It was, and remains, to me one of the most amazing evidences of the leadership of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is not intangible – it is very much evident in the life of a committed Christian.
In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence…(Proverbs 14:27).
Picture below is the work in progress and the scripture my husband inscribed.
One Focus Ministries 