"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Verse 10
"The woman Folly is loud, she is undisciplined and without knowledge." Verse 13
"Do not rebuke a fool or he will hate you, but rebuke a wise man and he will love you" Verse 8
When I look around today, I think how very true! The so called educated leaders, news people, and other celebrities think they are so wise but they don't have a clue and are running our country into the dirt. They mock people who believe in God and have done everything in their power to take him out of any public arena. No wonder, because they have no fear of God, they have no wisdom or understanding. They are full of folly, they are definitely undisciplined, spending this country to the brink of bankruptcy. And heaven forbid that someone may point out that they may be wrong or a different idea may work better. That just opens up more finger pointing and hateful jabs back at that person. Both sides seem to be concerned with only one thing, keeping themselves in power. How long can a country last when their leaders only produce legislation that will buy them votes and keep their party in power instead of what would be good for the country?
But enough about other people. (Isn't that typical, how many times do we read the bible and think "YEAH! So and so needs to read that!!!) I don't think that was God's intended use for his scriptures but one I've been guilty of many many times. These three verses speak volumes about my life. I can't think of a truer statement about me than "when I came to know the Lord it was the beginning of wisdom and knowledge in my life." Not to say by any means that I know it all, far from that, but it opened up the path for God to reveal new things to me each and every day. Before that time, I was the woman "Folly". I was loud, undisciplined and without knowledge. Believe me, I can still be that woman, but because I know the Lord, I am sensitive to his desire for my life and open to his rebuke.
Which brings me to the third verse, verse eight. How difficult a verse to put into action in my own personal life. "Do not rebuke a fool or he will hate you, but rebuke a wise man and he will love you". I can remember when I was a teenager my mother saying, "Norma, you are not very good at taking criticism" and I would think, "Well who would be!" But as God points out in this verse, it is to my own benefit when someone shows me where I may be wrong or something I can do better. How easy, foolish, and childish it is to become defensive and lash back at the person who said something to me. How humble to contemplate what was said and discern if there may be an element of truth to it. How wise I would be, if I realize the person was right, to not only not be mad at them, but to thank them for their concern for me and their courage to speak up. I don't even think it is humanly possible, it is only with the grace of the Lord that I could ever accomplish this, but it is definitely a goal worth working toward. Because after all, I want to be the best person, best mother, best wife, best daughter of Christ that I can be. If I am falling short in some way, and someone on the outside looking in sees it, and lovingly makes me aware, it will only help me accomplish those goals better. Probably one of the hardest criticism's to take would be from someone who isn't on the outside looking in, but rather from someone who is on the inside with me, like a husband, or a child, or a parent. I know I would (and have) immediately start thinking about all the things that they do wrong in my eyes and be ready to let them have it with both barrels! But, I just can't seem to pull out of these verses anything that remotely says that is the way to react wisely.
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