Day 184, or July 3. You don't always know best.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Proverbs chapter 12 verse 15. The ways of fools seem
right to them, but the wise listen to advice.
First the big picture surrounding this verse. Today we enter the second volume of Solomon's
parables in which he contrasts the godly and the wicked. He writes about the actions of
a wise son. It would have been interesting to have heard his father David's comments
on this. Most of this advice is for men, but not exclusively. Women are not forgotten.
Wait until tomorrow's reading.
And now today's action step. It seemed like a good idea at the time. How many times have
you heard that when someone's bright idea has collapsed? How many times has it been
you saying it? Our verse today reminds us that sometimes our proposed actions may seem
right but only because we haven't thought them through enough. According to this verse
we are clearly not urged to just blindly do what others say, but it does encourage us
to at least listen. I have found that very often those who don't listen to others are
not as convinced by their own ideas as they at first seem to be. They wear blinkers and
don't want to hear alternatives in case their fragile convictions crumble. If you were convinced
of a particular course of action and will not talk about it to anyone, it could be that
you were fearful that it may not be the best idea you ever had. In which case, pause for
a while, sleep on it, and ask God again. If we fail to listen, we fail to learn from other
people's wisdom, or indeed their mistakes. A good friend of mine, who took an obvious
wrong decision in his life, and later had to go back to square one before he could make
any progress, stubbornly refused to admit he got it wrong. He always said it was a learning
time, but we both knew it was a mistake, and he would have recovered from it a lot quicker
if he had admitted he got it wrong, and promised to listen to others a little more carefully
in future, before taking action.