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Proverbs 30:11 · World English Bible

Proverbs 30:11 Meaning There Is a Generation That Curses

There is a generation that curses their father, and doesn’t bless their mother.

What does Proverbs 30:11 mean?

A mind that turns on its own origin is describing the ego, which cannot bear to have been created and so denies the Love that made it. To curse the father is to reject the strength that stands quietly behind the mind, and to withhold blessing from the mother is to refuse the tenderness that would hold it.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 30:11 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A mind that turns on its own origin is describing the ego, which cannot bear to have been created and so denies the Love that made it. To curse the father is to reject the strength that stands quietly behind the mind, and to withhold blessing from the mother is to refuse the tenderness that would hold it. This is separation itself, the belief that a mind can spring from nothing and owe nothing to anyone.

The correction is gentle and near at hand. A mind that stops attacking where it came from discovers it was never orphaned, and the strength and the gentleness it cursed were only waiting to be welcomed home.

Father: the part of the mind that stands in strength, the firm and steady love the ego insists it did not come from Mother: the gentleness within the mind that would comfort and enfold, the tenderness the ego refuses to bless

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 30:11 today

  1. Think of one thing you are good at and trace it back to whoever handed it to you, even imperfectly. Say thank you out loud in the car, even if they will never hear it.
  2. Send a short text to a parent or someone who raised you, with no agenda and no old argument in it. Two sentences about something small you remember is plenty.
  3. The next time you feel the pull to prove you got here entirely on your own, pause before you say it. Let someone else's help be part of the story you tell.

Where am I still insisting I came from nowhere?

The same truth in other traditions

Confucius · Analects

Honoring the ones who gave you life is the root from which every other decency grows. Cut the root and the branches wither, however clever they look.

Judaism · Talmud

Refusing gratitude to the one who raised you is not freedom, only severance. The strength you reject is still the strength holding you up.

Tao Te Ching 51

The Way gives birth to things and then nourishes them without ever claiming them. To pretend you are your own source is to argue with the ground you stand on.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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