Wisdom Living

Luke 7:35, "But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it."
How many times in my life have I thought, "I know what I am doing. I don't need church, God, or anyone telling me what to do. I can make my own decisions." I look back on this attitude; this statement, that I made quite often, and think, "How foolish you were (are). The choices you made and the life you lived, prove how immature you really were (are)."

I have recently been give this question: "Don't you need to make mistakes in order to not be a fool." My short answer is "No." A truly wise person is someone who can learn from others. A truly wise person is one who can stop long enough to consider the consequence of their choices and make the long lasting correct choice. A fool is someone who thinks that the only way they can learn is through making mistakes first. But through everything, loving yourself is the key to being truly wise.

Proverbs 19:8, "To acquire wisdom is to love oneself; people who cherish understanding will prosper." Why would anyone want to suffer? Why would anyone continually choose to do things that bring hurt upon them self? The true answer is that they have convinced themselves that they deserve what they get. They have believed all the negative things they have heard from others and from themselves. This in turn makes them think that they cannot really learn without making the mistakes themselves. We think that we are all on our own and we can only learn from our mistakes. I have spent my entire life being this fool. With all of my strength I am continually trying to stop being this person. I am tired of getting hurt, just because I have to learn things the hard way. The hardest part is that I know when I am choosing to be this fool. Even when I am all alone, I can hear the Holy Spirit telling me that I need to do this or not do that. But like a fool I bull through, to reap the consequences later.

When I am showing myself true love, I seek the advise from others and from God. When I am seeking wisdom, I know that I am open to hear, so I listen to good advise, even if I want to do something contrary to what they say. In loving myself, I should choose to seek help outside myself, so that I can make better choices. I need to learn to seek the good advise from those who will look ahead to what could happen, and help me make the wise choice. For some reason I feel like I have to have the right answers myself in order to be wise. What I am continually learning is that to be truly wise is to seek out the wisdom others have. To truly learn to love myself, is to consistently seek wisdom, so that I can stop hurting myself. Proverbs 15:22, "Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success." The true path to living a wise life is to surround yourself with others whose lives prove they are living wisely. If someone is continually living with negative consequences, they are proving that they are not wise. We just have to learn to seek advise from the right people.

Proverbs 15:15, "Only simpletons believe everything they’re told! The prudent carefully consider their steps." When others tell you anything, carefully consider the words that you hear. We know whether or not, if the advise we receive is life or death. Be wise in your acceptance of what people tell you. Look ahead. When you have made a mistake do not dwell on it. Learn from it and do not continually seek that path of knowledge. Surround yourself with wise friends. This does not mean that you think you are better than your old friends, but that you wish to love yourself and others enough to make better choices. Seek wisdom. Your life will reap a sweeter reward.