November 15th

Wisdom

            My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;  if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

            For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

            Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.

Proverbs 2:1-11

            If there is one thing that I have sought after…longed for…devoted myself to finding in the midst of this parenting life above all else, it is this:  sleep.

            The next thing would be wisdom.  This boy did not come with an instruction manual and all the books about what to expect did not prepare us for navigating these waters.  I long to know the right answer.  What are we supposed to do?  How are we supposed to do it?  Why is he acting this way and is there anything that I can do in order to help good come out of it?

            We are seekers of wisdom.  We are seekers of truth.  We are searching for a way to unlock the mysteries of our children.  We consult doctors.  We read books.  We visit blogs.  We talk with other parents.  We study and document and experiment and devote a large percentage of our personal resource to understanding this unique young person.

            Do you know what I do not do often in the face of parenting challenges?  Pray.  I do not take time to pray for wisdom to understand why my son dips his sandwiches in milk but does not like the foods on his plate to touch.  I do not take time to pray for wisdom when he rushes through a project with some imaginary timeline in his head.  I do not take time to pray for wisdom when he chooses to reach out to the most socially awkward and damaged person in youth group instead of people who could be actual friends.  I am not saying that we should stop using the other resources as well, but the passage in Proverbs says that God is the one who gives wisdom…and if He is offering it, wouldn’t it be wise to take Him up on that?

            Everything has context.  There is a reason, or a series of reasons, behind all of the puzzling and troubling behaviors.  But that context could be one of a dozen different things and how would we know which option is really the catalyst?  Wisdom.  Wisdom allows us to look at the big picture and understand the forces at play.  Wisdom allows us to identify patterns and eliminate variables.  Wisdom takes all of the information that comes our way and distills it down into something useful and applicable.

            Take some time to pray for wisdom.  Take some time to ask for eyes that see and a heart that understands.  We have sought all the information that we could find.  Now we need God’s help to know what to do with it.  What do we hold on to?  What do we let go of?  What do we need to find out more about?

            Wisdom.

A moment to reflect:

Ask God for wisdom today.