Like many families, my family has its own vocabulary. Some of the words in our family’s vocabulary have origins no one remembers. In my childhood years, when we loaded the car for a trip my dad would say to me, “Son, put that bag in the turtle.” The turtle was what we called the trunk of the car. I do not know why we called it that, but we did. If you wanted someone to know you were serious, you said you were “cereal.” We called Brussels sprouts “little elephants.” My grandmother always called gum “Lucy.” Few of these strange expressions had explanations; fewer actually made sense. But that was how we referred to things.

There was also another side to my family’s vocabulary, one I have grown to appreciate more and more. We were a family that valued God, faith, and the Scriptures. Many of our not-so-strange expressions quoted or reflected the wisdom of the Bible. Many of my father’s expressions were nothing more than a rephrasing of the ancient wisdom of King Solomon and the other writers of the Proverbs. My father’s wisdom from the book of Proverbs was passed to me through constant verbal repetition and the example of a man who lived according to the truth. Three of his favorite topics come from the Old Testament book of Proverbs: integrity, wisdom, and diligence.

Often while growing up I was in the minority by wanting to honor God and do the right thing. I felt there were times when the world was neither fair nor just. One of the hardest things for any young person to come to terms with is that he will be surrounded by people who will lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead—and often those people will not be caught or appear to suffer the consequences of their actions. When I was faced with one of these situations, my dad had a simple statement that reflected a keen understanding of integrity: “Don’t worry about what everyone else does. Do what is right.” I heard this statement often growing up, and for good reasons.

The temptation to abandon integrity and resort to unethical and dishonest means to succeed is a powerful one. What my father saw in me was the frustration that comes from trying to live in a way that honors God, while others seemed to earn more money and get ahead by sacrificing their integrity.

The concern of my father was no different than the concern King Solomon had for his sons. Many times Solomon championed integrity as a way of life. Three verses in particular show the contrast between having integrity and living carelessly.

“The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out” (Proverbs 10:9).

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity” (11:3).

“Righteousness guards the man of integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner” (13:6).

What made this principle poignant to me was the fact that my father put it into practice every day. I know my father well enough to know he is not a perfect man. Like every father before and after him, he has flaws and struggles. However, what I also know about my father is that he is a man who repeatedly told me to display the integrity he demonstrated, often in adverse circumstances. My dad has worked in the ministry in one form or another throughout my entire life, and consequently I got to know many ministers and Christian leaders. Some of these men were men of honesty and integrity, but not all of them. Still, even when working for men who exhibited dishonesty or a lack of ethics, my father was guided by his integrity.

According to my dad, wisdom is not just about making the right decisions; it is about doing things the right way and the best way. Never was this more evident than when my father was declaring his most notable saying, “Plan your work and work your plan.” This saying has been around a long time, but dad quoted and lived it in such a way that you would have thought he was the first one to coin the phrase.

While others were making things up as they went along, or waiting until the last minute to take care of necessary details, my father always preached to me that preparation and planning were wisdom put into action. We cannot plan for everything in life. My family did not plan for my mother to get cancer, or for thousands of other circumstances we encountered both good and bad.

In the book of Proverbs wisdom is repeatedly linked to the pursuit and application of knowledge. For the writer of old it was wise to obtain knowledge and to act upon it. Two verses show this and how it relates to being prepared.

“Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin” (10:14).

“Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness” (14:22).

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (21:5).

Thousands of years ago Solomon taught that there was wisdom in preparation. My dad’s life reflected the wisdom of preparation in many ways. During my high school years my father was one of my teachers at school, my coach, and for a time we both worked part-time at the same grocery store. Even though he was my father, these different circumstances led to many different types of interactions most fathers and sons are not privileged to experience. In every one of these roles I saw that my dad came prepared. As a coach, my dad prepared the basketball team; although we did not win every game, it was not because we were not prepared. As a teacher, some of his students would fail, but it was not because he had not done everything he could to prepare them for their tests and for life.

Few people in the world annoy me in the morning like my father. Having been awakened hundreds of times by him, I feel confident in this assertion. He loved to turn on lights, sing, shout, and do just about anything else to wake me up in the morning. One of the many expressions he loved to recite while turning on my light and serenading me with some nerve-grating song was, “Get up, son, you are burning daylight!” To this day, when I visit home, he loves to get up earlier than I do in the morning so he can open the door and repeat this to me.

Solomon might not have put it like that, but his sentiment to his sons was the same—diligence in life is a key to success.

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (10:4).

“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor” (12:24).

“The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (13:4).

To be a success in any venture—spiritual, business, or athletic—takes diligence. The ability and desire to put aside laziness and get down to business is something good fathers have tried to instill in their sons throughout history. Solomon learned this trait from his father, King David, and he passed it along to his own sons.

I have met few people in my life whose diligence and work ethic match that of the man I call Dad. Many times my dad has worked jobs that were high on stress and low on pay and benefits, yet his diligence at work never wavered. He undertook his responsibilities as a husband and father just as diligently.