So, where did I leave off? Oh yes, I was talking about wisdom and all that sort of stuff. One of my favorite authors is Eugene Peterson. He wrote a translation of the bible which puts it in more palatable language. I can use palatable. Anyway, he said these words as an introduction to the book of Proverbs:
Wisdom has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace. Threaded through all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over God.
We are living in some very tumultuous days and everybody feels they just have to state their opinion and they use the excuse "I have strong opinions about this." Well who of us doesn't? But what is really important? How are we doing with our relationships: our parents, our spouse, our children, our neighbors? What about with ourselves?
Here are the words from Proverbs 1 verses 8 - 19, according to Eugene Peterson:
8Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;
never forget what
you learned at your mother’s knee.
9Wear their counsel like
flowers in your hair,
like rings on your fingers.
10Dear
friend, if bad companions tempt you,
don’t go along with them.
11If they say—“Let’s go out and raise some hell.
Let’s beat up
some old man, mug some old woman.
12Let’s pick them clean
and
get them ready for their funerals.
13We’ll load up on
top-quality loot.
We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
14Join
us for the time of your life!
With us, it’s share and share alike!”—
15Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;
don’t listen to them
for a minute.
16They’re racing to a very bad end,
hurrying to
ruin everything they lay hands on.
17Nobody robs a bank
with
everyone watching,
18Yet that’s what these people are doing—
they’re doing themselves in.
19When you grab all you can get,
that’s what happens:
the more you get, the less you are.
Now you see, there is enough in just these few verses to cause us to think for quite some time. I'm a slow thinker, so it might take me longer to think on these things than some of you. Oh well, I've got time to work on this and so I'm gonna start on it right now.
