Wisdom
My Mom and Dad were in town, and before heading out for a round of golf, my favorite thing to do with my father, the three of us were chatting.
I was talking about giving advice to my college students. I shared that my students often want to ask about if something is "right or wrong." Which is, let's admit, a critically important question. However, I often reframe those sorts of questions, shifting to talk about wisdom. Let's ask if something is wise or foolish.
That led Dad to ask: “What is wisdom? How do we define it?" To which Mom quickly quipped: "Wisdom is whatever keeps you out of trouble and helps others."
That is a great definition of wisdom!
I'm going to remember that and pass it on to my students.
Wisdom is whatever keeps you out of trouble and helps others.
I’ve heard the wisdom question asked this way, “In light of your past experiences, your current circumstances & your future hopes & dreams, what is the wise thing to do?” My friend introduced the word & wise question when his daughter just started understanding words. The question of wisdom gets me to thinking rather than just following a set of rules. Rules are for the mindless & don’t honor or respect the individual.
I had a string of train wreck relationships in my past, I was in a state of devastation because of that & I wanted a healthy, genuinely loving, Christ centered marriage. The wise thing to do was to follow some wise counsel & devote my intimacy life to Christ. I gave up pornography & committed to not having premarital sex along with a lot of other devotional behavior. (This was in the late 2010’s & I was in my 40’s). The marriage I have today is unbelievable, my wife tells me all the time how honored she feels by me, she trusts me because I’m trustworthy, among other fantastic characteristics of our marriage. The wise thing to do was to love my wife as Christ loved the church, He laid His life down for her. The wise thing to do was to lay down my selfish desires & hurtful actions for her betterment, this was my mindset when I was single & I didn’t know who “she” was. My hopes & dreams were to have something better than I had & what I got was better than I could imagine.
Moms ❤️