Today’s Blog: Avoiding the Hard Lessons

TODAY’S PROVERB: My son, if you have become a cosigner for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge with a stranger, if you are trapped by your own words, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and free yourself, since you fell into your neighbor’s hand: Go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Escape like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. Proverbs 6:1-5, TLV

If you don’t ever follow this blog again, today’s proverb is one of the most practical and important bits of wisdom you’ll find. DON’T CO-SIGN A LOAN! Unless you are fine with inheriting the vehicle, house, credit card balance, etc. — along with all the payments.

Hubby and I had to learn this the hard way. Not just once or twice, but three times, because the co-sign can come in different forms. Here were the three examples we encountered:

• Can we just take over the payments? We had purchased a 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass shortly after getting married, that we couldn’t afford, so we put it up for sale. Of course, we’d only had it a year and owed more than it was worth. “Friends” were willing to take over the payments. We shook hands and never saw a penny.
• We’re finalizing our bank loan, can we start using the car now? Same car, which means it was only a few months later. This “transaction” was between my boss — the guy who signed my paychecks — and us. Surely, this deal would be fine. Nope. We ended up having to go to the loan company and they graciously hired repo guys to get it back. So, I lost my job and money.
• Third-party company who monitors loan assumptions. Seemed legitimate. Different car, five years later. Said company “monitors” payments for a fee, paid by the buyer. When our loan company said we were two months behind on payments, we called the monitoring company. No answer. We visited the office. Empty. We lost and the buyer lost.

So, imagine twenty years later I come across this proverb and realize had we been living the Wisdom’s Journey, we could have avoided the cost and frustration of these foolish decisions. As a young couple — who thought we knew everything — we needed our Heavenly Father’s wise counsel.

By the way, there are also other types of co-sign traps, many include our children. Learning to only buy what we can afford goes hand-in-hand with this bit of wisdom.

Mentoring matters

Parents, teachers, pastors, counselors, mentors: directing young people to Scriptures is important. Instructing them in the discipline of spending time with the LORD is also important. But, too often we forget to give them the practical tools to live in this world with integrity and wisdom. Not just what to do, but how to do it. Proverbs does that.

When we demonstrate the how, we learn alongside them. Our mistakes can be valuable lessons. Our successes an inspiration. How great is that?

May we flee from foolish decisions, my friends.

Proverbs 6:1-5 Tree of Life Version – TLV, #tlvbible, #tlvproverbs

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