The Plumbline

How does a man become wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord! Only fools refuse to be taught. Listen to your father and mother. What you learn from them will stand you in good stead; it will gain you many honors. (Proverbs 1:8-9) One does not become wise overnight - it takes a whole lot of lessons taught, grasped, and then lived out to make one wise. One thing we can learn overnight - how to live like a foolish person! We can make bad decisions quicker than we breathe. Just like that, we move in the wrong direction, and before you know it, we are speeding in the pursuit of something that we should have left alone. Don't believe me? Think about the last argument you had with someone, or the last time you gave into a craving for chocolate, ice cream, or some decadent treat. What got you there is not what will get you out of there! You need wisdom - to understand and recognize you are making a wrong move, then to turn away from that course of action, and take the step...

There is clearly a difference from being willing to learn and being excited to be taught. It was Winston Churchill who reminded us, "Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I don't always like being taught." We won't always like the topic we are learning, nor will we be in the best of mindsets to receive what is being taught. There are still going to be those 'lesson moments' when we hope to make it through relatively unscathed. We are just getting through it by the skin of our teeth. What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. ( 1 Peter 1:3 MSG ) In the meantime, there is a whole lot of discomfort on more occasions than we...

" The years teach much which the days never know ." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)  I believe we all have had those moments when we simply stand in amazement at how well things just "came together", even when we didn't quite know what to expect or how it would all get accomplished.  I have put many a "build it yourself" piece of furniture together in my lifetime and let me just tell you this - those pictures look good on the outside of the box, but when you see all those parts on the inside - eegads!  I set about building, in faithful obedience to the instructions so as to not end up with parts left over or having to "redo" my work.  Try as I might, I usually have to take something apart!  Why?  I followed the directions, but somehow I didn't quite see how that one piece was just subtly different than the other. In life, what we learn from having to "redo" some of the things we have experienced isn't all that fun, but the lesson lea...