Proverbs 4:26 says: “Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.”
In the Bible, various writers speak about a level path. Picture a hiker on a trail making her way up a mountain. If the path is level, that’s good. If it’s rocky, she could roll over on her ankle or slip off the path, which is bad.
The “path” is often a metaphor for life. In other words, “Give careful thought to the trajectory of your life and be steadfast in all your ways.”
Hebrew language scholar Robert Alter translates that same verse like this: “Level the pathway of your foot, and all your ways will be sound.”*
In both translations, the emphasis is on being deliberate. Set priorities and live by them. If you don’t, you’ll easily get thrown off course.
I recently came across a quote by pastor Rick Warren: “If you don’t live by priorities you’ll live by pressures. Either you determine what’s important in life or other people will determine it for you.”
How very true. If you don’t think very specifically about what your priorities are, and if you don’t try to organize your life around achieving those priorities, other pressures can throw you off course.
Proverbs 4:26 says to give “careful thought” to the paths for your feet, not “careless thought.” If you’ve already done this, that’s great. If not, perhaps it would be a good idea to take some time in the coming week to jot down some of the things that matter most, and ask yourself honestly if your life is properly aligned or out-of-whack.
“Level the pathway of your foot, and all your ways will be sound.”
Notes:
-*Robert Alter, The Wisdom Books: A Translation with Commentary—Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011), 211.
-Bible quotes, ESV.
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