Wisdom
Mom’s Survival Tips
To my kids who have left home and are on their own, I pass on a list of life lessons:
1. Don’t sweat your every mistake or faux pas. They make up for the things you got away with that nobody knows about.
2. Avoid marrying anyone who deliberately flushes the toilet when you’re taking a shower.
3. When someone tells you that what he’s about to say is “for your own good,” expect the worst.
4. The value of a dog is its constant reminder of how much fun it is to be idiotic.
5. If you are lavishly praised, enjoy the taste but don’t swallow it whole.
6. When a politician says, “Let me make something perfectly clear,” remember that he usually won’t.
7. Your children may leave home, but their stuff will be in your attic and basement forever.
8. If someone says, “I know what I mean, but I just can’t put it into words,” he doesn’t know what he means.
9. Two people cannot operate a TV remote control in the same room at the same time.
10. Don’t waste time trying to be your own best friend. You can’t pat yourself on the back, and it’s unsatisfying to cry on your own shoulder. Find a real friend instead.
Charlotte Johnstone, Family Circle
Quotes
• Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it. – Anon.
• A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Nobody lives long enough to make them all himself. – Anon
• I would have you learn this great fact: that a life of doing right is the wisest life there is. If you live that kind of life, you’ll not limp or stumble as you run. Proverbs 4:11, 12 TLB
• Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly. – Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School
• A colleague of mine at NASA was assigned to prepare a presentation on lessons learned from our bad experiences with the Hubble Space Telescope. On his chart at the briefing, lesson No. 1 read: “In naming your mission, never us a word that rhymes with trouble.” – Reader’s Digest, March, 1993, p. 128
• Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it. – J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 80.
• Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk. – Doug Larson
• You don’t have to be listed in Who’s Who to know what’s what.
• Wisdom is spiritually opportunistic (Eph. 5:16–17)
• A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.
Dean Chose
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.
“Done!” says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, “Say something.”
The dean looks at them and says, “I should have taken the money.”
Betsy Devine and Joel E. Cohen, Absolute Zero Gravity (Simon & Schuster), quoted in Reader’s Digest
Knowing Where To Tinker
Auto maker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn’t find the problem. So Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life—but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high.
Steinmetz’s reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990.
Ford paid the bill.
Today in the Word, MBI, April, 1990, p. 27
Proud Young Man
There’s a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge. He walked up to the muscular philosopher and said, “O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge.” Socrates recognized a pompous numbskull when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water. Then he asked, “What do you want?” “Knowledge, O wise Socrates,” said the young man with a smile. Socrates put his strong hands on the man’s shoulders and pushed him under. Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up. “What do you want?” he asked again. “Wisdom,” the young man sputtered, “O great and wise Socrates.” Socrates crunched him under again. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five. Forty. Socrates let him up. The man was gasping. “What do you want, young man?” Between heavy, heaving breaths the fellow wheezed, “Knowledge, O wise and wonderful…” Socrates jammed him under again Forty seconds passed. Fifty. “What do you want?” “Air!” he screeched. “I need air!” “When you want knowledge as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge.”
M. Littleton in Moody Monthly, June, 1989, p. 29
Resources
• Decision Making and the Will of God, pp. 192ff
• God’s Little Instruction Book for Men, (Honor Books, Tulsa, OK; 1996), p. 107
Requirements
Spiritual requirements for gaining wisdom:
• Reverence (Prov 9:10)
• Humility (Prov 11:2, 15:33)
• Teachableness (Prov 9:9, 15:31, 19:20)
• Diligence (Prov 8:17, 2:4–5)
• Uprightness (Prov 2:7)
• Faith (James 1:5–8).
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