Skip to main content

The Wise Woman...

 

          The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. (Proverbs 14:1)

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. (Proverbs 31:26)

 Wisdom: Correctly applied knowledge

 The definition above is not one you’ll find in the dictionary, but it serves here. The first verse haunts me. It’s one of the reasons I ask people to pray “wisdom, direction, attitude” for me. There are two sides to this anxiety. The first is a fear that I’m doing a bad job of caring for my house and that I’ll go home and find it a pile of rubble or it will become a pile of rubble around me. But instead, I’m spending money to do things I want to do and that I think God wants me to do.

The second reason is that building a house also applies to building a life. For years, my life was pretty well set out. I would work my full-time job and take care of Mom. Then Mom died before Dad, and he became the one I cared for. Anything more than that was a hobby. Building my house? It was already built, and I had no real choices.

Then Dad died, and I find myself trying to figure out how to build my house. What do I want my house to be like? What is the wise way to build a life? Yes, I know, walking with God, within God’s will, obedient to God, and all those other good Sunday School answers. But unfortunately, Scripture doesn’t tell me whether or not to have a garden or what to put in it, or where to live. It tells me a lot about wisdom, but not always what the wise decision. Now that I seem to have choices, what choices should I make?

And how do I make decisions that fit together as a cohesive whole? How do I become the person I want to be? Now that I’m on my own, who am I? These are problems and questions we all face, and that may be one of the big lessons I need to learn. I’m not trying to figure out what everyone else has figured out - everyone else is in the same boat even if they don’t realize it. I just happen to have circumstances that make or allow me to be more aware.

I may also be having the “can’t see the forest for the trees” situation. When I encounter verses like this, I try to look at the whole, when really, wisdom would suggest that I deal with what’s in front of me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more