Wasted Wisdom

Reading for Today: Proverb Chapter 23

Gold Nugget

Verse 9: “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”

Commentary

In our efforts to walk in love, we will often find ourselves helping those that will not help themselves. The challenge is in knowing who really wants help. Some will use that help to move closer to the person they should be, while others have the philosophy of, “If it’s free, it’s for me, I’ll take three!” Whether its financial help, lending someone a helping hand or any other type of assistance, many people will not use that help to better themselves. Some will benefit from your help and some won’t. Some people will simply stop helping anyone once they’ve been burned, but Christians know it comes with the territory and just try to keep from getting burned by the same people too much. That being said, we should be careful to keep from spending all of our resources on those that are not going to truly benefit from it and shift our time, money and efforts to those who will.

The same goes for our wisdom and advice. As we gain experience through life, we want to prevent those from making the same mistakes we’ve made. The challenge is knowing who is interested in your wisdom and who will just despise you for it. Today’s “gold nugget” says, “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.” Sometimes our advice will be cast away, but we shouldn’t simply refuse to offer wisdom because of the rejection of some. Knowing when to withhold our wisdom from others and knowing when to share it comes from attempting it in love and using good judgment. We will just have to keep trying until any doubt is removed.

Prayer

Lord, I know that you expect us to be helpful and give direction to the lost, but I also know you gave us this verse in Proverbs to make sure we use wisdom with the resources you have given us by distributing it to those that need and will benefit from them.  Amen

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