Who is "in residence" in your life?

Wisdom has a couple of companions "in residence" with him - Good Judgment, Knowledge, and Planning.  All three make the best "roommates" for Wisdom.  If we want to have a "full house", we want all of these "in residence" within!  Get Good Judgment, Knowledge, Planning and Wisdom inside of you and you will find you make decisions a little differently - these "residents" create a culture quite different from what might be the "norm" in your life right now.

I am Wisdom. I live with Good Judgment. I am at home with Knowledge and Planning. (Proverbs 8:12 ERV)

Wisdom is not a thing, he is a person - Christ Jesus.  All wisdom comes from God because God is the embodiment of wisdom.  Wisdom is the applied knowledge we amass over the years - to have both in residence in your life suggests you are in a position of learning on a continual basis - not just to amass knowledge, but to figure out how it applies to the daily decisions you make.

Good Judgment may seem like it is the same thing as Wisdom, but it stands alone because we can possess a whole lot of knowledge and still make bad decisions.  Wisdom and Knowledge are good companions, but we need Good Judgment to assist us when we don't have time to think things through - when we need to be spontaneous or instantaneous in our decision-making.

Planning is the companion of the rest because when we apply our knowledge, we find ourselves planning our steps.  We aren't as quick to take steps which are not well-ordered and appointed as the best ones for us to take.  We find we are more apt to avoid missteps when we have invited a little Planning into our lives.

Why are these important "residents" to invite into our lives?  I think it begins with our choices.  When we have these companions living so close to us, we find that our choices are a little different than they were without these companions. I can tell you I live a little differently today with my elderly mom in residence with me than I did when it was just me living in the house.  When it was just me, I could choose to stop at the stores and window shop instead of coming home to make dinner.  I could eat a bowl of cereal at dinner if I didn't feel like cooking. I would not be concerned with shutting the doors when I showered or changed clothes.  Why?  Alone I make different decisions than when I have someone "in residence" with me. 

To have these companions in residence in our lives begins to affect how we live our lives on a daily basis.  Wisdom is the governing companion - helping us make wise choices when we might not possess all the knowledge we might need up front.  Wisdom calls upon Knowledge to reveal truth to us so that we might stand in strength in the decisions we make.  Good Judgment will tweak our choices a little - giving a little "tempering" to the ones which may not be the optimal for us.  Good Judgment helps us live life at the "optimal" level - by helping us pick and choose what it is we will respond to.  Planning is kind of there as the "leveling" factor in our lives.  When we invite a little Planning into our lives, we are taking steps to avoid wrong decisions, but also to plan for the right ones to be made.

We don't just want Wisdom - although it is a good start.  Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom - Good Judgment and Planning help us in our actual walking out of what we have learned and what we are actively applying in our lives.  Just sayin!

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