Life Coach: Wisdom from the Proverbs

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion.”

–Proverbs 8:12

At a time when young people are graduating and making choices for their futures, I am reminded that all of us daily make choices that will affect our futures. What wisdom or advice would we give to a high school graduate who is about to go off to college or launch out in some other endeavor? We would say to them, “Make good choices. Don’t go along with the crowd and think something is all right to do just because ‘everyone is doing it’. Stop, think, and consider before you decide on a particular course of action. We know that even small decisions can have big ramifications in our lives.” This is good advice for all of us.

In this Proverb we see that wisdom dwells with prudence. Prudence is an old fashioned word that means carefulness, forethought, and good judgment. It also says that wisdom knows where to discover knowledge and discretion. Full knowledge about a matter can help us make good decisions. It is wise to seek to know more about a matter and apply good judgment before we chose to go down a certain path.

Some of the worst decisions often happen when people are under time pressures. Sometimes we get a “red flag” warning, not always knowing why. When that happens, it is really a time to stop and consider. If we don’t quite know yet what to do, in many cases it is a time to just wait. While we are waiting, often more will be revealed that will make it evident which choice is the one that will produce the results we want for our lives.

It can take strength to resist the pressures to move too quickly. But oh how many negative life-altering decisions could have been avoided by just hesitating a moment or two to listen to the wisdom that is speaking to us.

Action: Seek wisdom and knowledge and apply good judgment.