General USA Edition: A Topical Proverbs Developmental Moral Study Guide & Workbook, By Patrick Skinner 48 Short Topical Chapters for greater character focus & understanding: including the Fruit of the Spirit as seen in Proverbs Proverbs 19:8 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) 8 The one who acquires good sense [literally: acquires a heart of wisdom] loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success. Reading And Study Plans for 9 months or a year: Excellent for Schools/small groups/personal Daily Devotions Understood culturally and historically, the heaping of burning coals was a positive action and an act of blessing our neighbor. Proverbs 25:21-22 21If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. At the time Proverbs 25:21-22 was written wood fires were burned to keep a house warm. When the fire went out in your home you didn’t have matches to restart the fire. You would go to a neighbor’s home and ask for a burning coal from their fireplace to restart your fire once again. This coal would be placed in a bucket-like structure and carried on your head to your home. The natural action if you hated your neighbor- or viewed them an enemy- would be to refuse burning coals for the buckets they carried on their heads. Heaping burning coals was an act of great kindness and neighborliness. It was not our participating in judging or shaming our neighbor as many seem to assume but an act of love and giving. This book provides a tool to show how topical Proverbs could be of help in bringing character development in all the cultures/nations of the world. How this book is structured: Each topical section gives a pithy or concise definition for the topical moral terms along with an introductory explanation; asks thought questions to prepare the reader for the content; lists the verses to be read and asks questions for the reader to answer with the answers found within the verses; asks the reader to answer the thought question in light of the verses read; gives further verses for the reader to read from within the Bible related to the topic; and asks the reader to apply those topical verses to his or her own life. Before moving to another section a prayer is encouraged for the reader to apply the topic to his or her own spirit.