angela hormberg

Tag: The Way

  • Proverbs 11:5

    Proverbs 11:5

    The Way of Righteousness

    Commonplace –

    “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness” (Proverbs 11:5).

    Yesterday, while I was scanning the room for supplies I might need for my co-op class, my eyes landed on a pair of scissors. I thought about the lesson I was going to teach and realized I didn’t need scissors, so I moved on. Then, a little voice inside me urged me to bring the scissors with me. After years of experience disregarding the voice to my own detriment, I just tossed the scissors into my bag. What difference would it make if I brought them and had no use for them? Off we went to co-op.

    During the first class of the day, I was serving as a class helper. Part way through the class, the teacher paused, glanced around searchingly, and asked, “Did anyone bring any scissors? I don’t have mine.” I immediately produced the pair of scissors I had tossed into my bag, and she thanked me gratefully. Later, in my own class during the second hour, I never needed the scissors. The scissors were not for me but were a help to another in need.

    Do you ever hear that little voice in your head? I know my children do, because we have talked about it. It’s the voice that nudges us toward the good, convicts us of bad ideas, and reminds us of things we didn’t even realize we needed. I’ve learned a few important lessons from listening to it:

    1. Disregard it, and you will regret it.
    2. Continue to disregard it, and it will grow weaker.
    3. Listen to it, and you will not regret it.
    4. Continue to listen to it, and it grows stronger.

    Whenever I have ignored the voice, I have always regretted it. Sometimes it’s about something simple, like the scissors in my story; sometimes it’s about big things, important things, character-shaping decisions.

    Proverbs 11:5 reminds me of this little voice. It is the good that is directing us on the right path, when we are open to receiving the message. If we ignore it, we become like the wicked and fall from our own foolishness.

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Proverbs 11:5.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2026 Angela Hormberg

  • Proverbs 10:29

    Proverbs 10:29

    Strength

    Commonplace –

    “The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity” (Proverbs 10:29).

    In Proverbs 10:29, Solomon tells us that our strength is rooted in the Lord’s way. What is the way of the Lord? Righteousness. Each time we choose the right, the good way, our strength to do so increases. It begins by choosing the right way in the small things: choosing to be kind, choosing to tell the truth, choosing to be peaceful and practice self-control. These are not always easy things to do, but our strength grows in the doing, in the over and over and over, again. As Matthew Henry words it in his Commentary,

    “the way of the Lord (the way of godliness, in which he appoints us to walk) is strength to the upright; the closer we keep to that way, the more are hearts are enlarged to fit in it, the better fitted we are both for services and sufferings. A good conscience, kept pure from sin, gives a man boldness in a dangerous time, and constant diligence in duty makes a man’s work easy in a busy time” (695).

    In contrast, constantly choosing to be mean, to lie, to lose our self-control only leads to destruction. These things don’t only hurt others but hurts the person doing them, too.

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Proverbs .” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

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    © 2025 Angela Hormberg

  • Psalm 131

    Psalm 131

    Commonplace –

    “Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever” (Psalm 131:3).

    David begins this psalm in a humble reflection. He acknowledges:

    1. he is not prideful,
    2. his eyes are not set on great achievements,
    3. he does not worry himself about important events outside his control, nor
    4. does he consider matters beyond himself.

    He compares his manner to that of a child, who has been weaned and can behave and maintain self control. In the last line of the psalm, he simply states that Israel’s hope is in the Lord.

    In this psalm, the psalmist is modeling how a believer should live. If we look at the opposite of each prideful trait he listed, we will come to a positive description of a believer. A believer is one who is

    1. humble,
    2. content with what he has accomplished in life,
    3. living peacefully in his day to day life, and
    4. focused only on those matters that concern him.

    Living life in this manner is a physical, day-to-day walking out of the believer’s hope in the Lord. One who lives in this manner lives in a way that reflects his complete faith that God is in control, and his hope rests solely in God, not his own actions or abilities. Matthew Henry notes, we may sing this psalm

    “…for the same purpose we read it, to teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, what we ought to be, with repentance that we have come short of being so, and humble prayer to God for his grace to make us so” (606).

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 131.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2025 Angela Hormberg