A "Necklace to Your 'Throat'

The wise king next addresses the youth:  "Listen to my discipline, my son, to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your  mother.  For they are a wreath to your head and a fine necklace to your throat." -Proverbs 1:8, 9. 

In ancient Israel, parents had the God-given responsibility  of teaching  their children. Moses exhorted fathers:  "These words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up." (Deuteronomy 6:6, 7) Mothers too had considerable influence. Within the framework of her husband's authority, a Hebrew wife could enforce family law.

Throughout the Bible, in fact, the family is the basic unit for imparting education.  (Ephesians 6:1-3)  For children to obey their believing parents is for them to be figuratively adorned with a decorative wreath of attractiveness and a necklace of honor. 

Next time: "It Takes Away the Very Soul of Its Owners" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 1999