With so many focused books and resources, we sometimes begin to think that marriage and family life is a unique, specialized field. In some ways, perhaps—yet the Bible often reminds us that the values that guide all healthy interactions apply, if anything, more strongly to our families. The principles in these seven Hebrew proverbs speak clearly, if not specifically, to family life.

• Verses 6-11 all contrast people who are honest, trustworthy and upright with those who deceive, who reject wisdom in order to pursue their own ways and who do violence, if not physically then emotionally. In what ways have you felt the difference between marriages and families that embody the “righteous” attitudes and speech listed here with those torn by the “foolish” or “wicked” qualities?
• “Love covers all offenses” in verse 12 used the same Hebrew word as verse 11’s “the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” Here, said commentator Paul Koptak, it meant “the covering that promotes healed relationships … Hatred stirs up, love smoothes over. Discord and dissension spring from hatred, but love nurtures harmony.” When has love healed in your life, not by ignoring a problem, but by being the glue that points beyond the problem to an essential connection worth preserving?