WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING

Hello, are you having a Meaningful Monday? Did you try using optimistic adjectives with the days of the week? BTW, I mistakenly wrote adverbs in last week’s blog instead of adjectives. Please forgive my error; nouns don’t need adverbs, as a rule.

All of my adult life I’ve preached to my children and anyone else who’d listen to me, that it’s important to keep an open mind throughout life. When you become too rigid and set in your opinions, in my opinion you become stagnant; your mind no longer grows and starts to shrivel up.

Lately, I’ve been gathering materials for another book. King Solomon, in the 3rd and 4th chapters of his book of Proverbs, thought that wisdom and understanding are more valuable than jewels. His teachings throughout Proverbs are a wonderful source of information to live by but we’re centering on wisdom and understanding for now.

Webster says wisdom, in a nutshell, is knowledge, insight, judgement. Solomon especially speaks of these in chapter 3. In other words, when we learn and absorb something, we have knowledge which we can examine to discern, therefore have the insight to use common sense to make a judgement for ourselves and thereby we have wisdom.

Understanding was more difficult for me. This I grappled with and I’m still not sure of myself. Webster has 3 definitions and I chose the 2nd. “The power of comprehending.” So I concluded that I can grasp the meaning of an experience and apply the wisdom that I’ve gained. Once I’ve done this, I can understand the ordinary decisions of day to day living and what God’s purpose is for my life. Right?  In Proverbs, we are told lean not unto our own understanding, but to God’s.  So, I guess the smart thing to do, or I should say wise thing, is trust in God completely and He will guide us to our path and the purpose for our lives.

In my next posting, I’d like to talk about following our dreams or purpose for our lives. Til then have a wonderful week knowing you’re loved.