The School of Hard Knocks.

As a child, I broke rules and tested boundaries. I considered rules challenges to be overcome.  How do you think that worked out? Poorly, I can assure you. I spent most of my time in trouble, learning everything the hard way. My younger brother, on the other hand, employed keen powers of observation: he learned by watching my mistakes. He did not enroll in the SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS. Instead, he gained wisdom by watching the trouble I got into. That is a much easier path to wisdom.

You can learn wisdom by experience; it is both the slowest and most painful route.  Or you can learn by watching the experiences of others—a painless, but slow process.  Finally, you can learn wisdom by accepting good advice, i.e., WISE COUNSEL—that is the fastest and easiest route to wisdom.

So where do you find wise counsel?  The best sources are: OTHER PEOPLE (parents, teachers, mentors, bosses), THE CHURCH (preachers, teachers, peers, even lyrics to hymns and worship songs), and PRAYER (James 1:5 says God will generously give wisdom to those who ask). 

But the best source of wise counsel is THE BIBLE itself.  THE BIBLE is LOADED with wisdom, absolutely loaded.

“The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy MAKING THE INEXPERIENCED WISE” Psalm 19:7.

Being young means being inexperienced, correct?  There are many things—many problems—you have not yet encountered.  You LACK experience.  HOWEVER, if you know the Bible, if you study it every day, it will give you the wisdom that most people only gain from spending years in the School of Hard Knocks.  The Bible will ‘make the inexperienced wise.’ What a great promise!  Would you rather learn everything the hard way, or the easy way?  Learning from the Word of God is so much better than learning through a constant string of failures! 

God, make us better students of your Word, and give us wisdom generously!

ΑΩ