Wisdom

My cousin Norma and I have been emailing about wisdom lately. As a Christian writer, she runs a ministry, 2MeFromHim, a blog-based internet presentation of a daily thought. Lately, it has been wisdom and Proverbs, and today we were joined by my favorite TV preacher, Charles Stanley, with his presentation based on Proverbs 4 and covering pretty specifically this one of my favorite passages:

5 Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 “Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
8 “Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
9 “She will place on your head a garland of grace;
She will present you with a crown of beauty.”

The kicker in this passage has always, to me, been that the way to get wisdom is to get wisdom. It says, "the beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom..." To me, that is sort of a "Well, duh!" moment. At least it was until I thought about it the first time I ever saw it and since then it has been everything but "well, duh!"

Dr. Stanley gave a very specific, detailed and, what I consider loaded sermon on the text, and his conclusion was simply that God has a plan for each and every one of us and if we have the wisdom to follow that plan we will follow "The Road to Life At Its Best." I like that title, and I like to think that is what God has in store for me, and I always pray and hope that I may be granted the wisdom to understand His way and follow the Way to that best of life.

The final point I want to make in today's blog is this: God never said it would be easy, but He did promise you would never be alone. Dr. Stanley paralleled this to his teaching that God says you will always reap what you sow, more than you sow, and after you sow; and, that's the way it is. If you sow a few wild oats, you reap, later, a lot of wild oats. If you sow good things, you later reap lots of good things. If we ask His guidance and help, then we make sure we are following His will and walking in His ways, and therefore we are more likely to be reaping good things from what we have sown.

So, go forth and sow good!