Today’s Scripture Reading (September
2, 2016): Proverbs 19
I am
currently in the beginning stages of the process of writing a thesis to complete
a degree I have been working on for some time. The process is an interesting
one. And it is definitely not without its
bumps and bruises. Part of this process is that you get to work hard to produce
this idea that makes sense to you, and you
have invested part of yourself in the creation of a concept and the model that flows out from it only to have
someone else tear it down and point out its weaknesses. If you are not careful,
at times the process can be overwhelming. Yet
the end product would not be near what it could be without the criticism
of your academic advisers. Their advice
and discipline help to make the final product more than you could have dreamt
it would ever be.
But we do
not like to receive correction. It is the truth that I am well aware of as
people parade in and out of my office. It is the tightrope that I walk every
time I get up to speak to a group of individuals.
What they want to hear from me is that whatever is going wrong in their lives
is just not their fault. It always belongs to
the realm of the other. They are not being
selfish when they do the things that they do – just human. We want a “Pied
Piper” to tickle our ears and make everything seem all right. The reality is
that even if it seems alright, it is not. And the problems grow larger as a
result. If we had only had someone who had permission to speak truth into our
lives, we could have avoided so much pain.
If we refuse
to listen to advice and insist on doing things our way, the simple fact is that
we won’t grow, we will just stay right where we are. And that was never the
purpose of this life. To live successfully means that every day we do something
to get just a little better, a little stronger and a little wiser than we were
the day before. It is not a process for just the young among us. It is for all
of us – young and old. The secret of the wise is that they have built a life on
the practice of listening to advice and accepting discipline. And as a result,
they have grown just a little wiser every day.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Proverbs 20
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