Prudent Forethought Required

Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought. (Thucydides)

A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. (Proverbs 22:3)

Thucydides said it well: "Calm and prudent forethought" wins out over those things we do or say out of impetuous desire or the lack of any forethought at all. As scripture reminds us, the 'prudent person' can actually foresee danger and is ready to take precautions. Why? They have spent time with Jesus giving those things a little forethought and 'forward-planning' in order to avoid the impetuous, unthinking actions of sin.

We are guilty at times of moving too quickly - making rash decisions that end up in less than desirable results. Some call it falling headlong into a trap set in crafty fashion to trip us up. While we give the devil a whole lot of credit for things he doesn't actually do, we might want to consider that some of that 'headlong falling' is a result of our own unthinking action!

What precautions do you take to avoid falling into temptation? When my son was just a wee lad, he'd get up in the middle of the night seeking a sweet treat. He'd sneak to the refrigerator, sit himself down in front of the open door, muster open the jelly jar, and dig in to enjoy his treat. Then he'd get off to bed again, but the door to the refrigerator stood wide open until one of us discovered it the next morning!

The 'precaution' we ended up taking? We tied a rope to the handle of the fridge, circled it around a hook mounted high on the cabinet next to the fridge, and prayed he wouldn't figure that 'precaution' out! It worked! Sometimes we need to get 'crafty' in our 'precautions', but most of the time we just need to exercise a bit of wisdom and take time for a bit of forethought. 

The Lord isn't going to ignore our pleas for help. He might want us to do a little of the work to create some 'pathways of wisdom' to counteract our pathways of impetuous behavior, though! We might just need to study a bit about why we do what we do, then craft ways to avoid those pitfalls, and have a plan in place before the 'tripping point' actually presents itself. Just sayin!