There isn't a woman out there that truly does NOT want to be a wise and wonderful woman. None of us are truly willing to settle for ordinary or simply enough, or worse, foolish and substandard. But how can we be wise and wonderful women that God desires and created us to be? Graciously He provides us with the what and how in His word: Proverbs 31:10-31. Whether married or single, young or old, this passage opens the door to wonderful, doable, possibility.
As we read through Proverbs, we quickly discover that chapter after chapter it has a lot to say about what we say. References to speech appear at least five times in each of the 31 chapters. Including a very important observation about a wise woman made in Proverbs 31:26: “She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Though this is an attribute about a wise and wonderful woman, both male and female need to have this describe all of us. In our pursuit of being wise in an unwise world, what comes out of our mouth is of utmost importance.
I have a daughter who understands math. All the numbers and symbols make sense to her. She reads math like a language. She knows how to apply it to come to a usable conclusion. I have a son who understands color and various art mediums. He understands how colors blend, and how light interacts with colors, shapes and objects. When he applies his understanding, he creates amazing paintings. Neither of my children got their understanding from me! God has gifted them both, but they have also put a lot of time and effort into understanding.
Understanding is what makes knowledge and wisdom applicable.
Can you think of a message that your Mom or Dad constantly drilled into you growing up? For example: You can be or do anything you set your mind to; or make something of your life; or don’t let others define who you are; or never settle. Maybe your parents were exceptionally competitive and the message was win at any cost or only losers lose. Remember the song “Que Sera Sera”? That mother passed down to her child: whatever will be will be. 2 Peter 2:14 talks about some “having a heart trained in greed.” We can only imagine what was pounded into them growing up. Obviously, not all messages pounded into us make us better people.
Proverbs 16:16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.
Proverbs 3:14,15 For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
I wish we believed that. If we did, it would radically change our priorities and pursuits. It would change our very definition of what we understand being blessed truly means.
If you were to ask someone, anyone, everyone: “Would you like to be wise?” I can’t imagine them saying, “No.” The desire to be wise is part of our created DNA. In the perfect Garden of Eden, Eve was drawn into the forbidden because Satan tapped into her desire to be wise. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.” Gen. 3:6 The desire to be wise comes from God, and being wise – being characterized by wisdom – is a Spirit-enabled and empowered process. But we have to want it. We have to ask for it. We have to pursue it. And we have to apply it.
We like options – lots of options! That is especially true when it comes to wisdom. We want to debate which variance is better. Pick and choose what we deem to be the perfect fit for us. This is so prevalent that we call this bent of being picky and prioritizing our preference as being wise. The more advantageous our choice proves to be, the wiser we deem ourselves to be. Our human/horizontal (---) definition of what it means to be wise is simply: to be right. All it takes is someone to affirm that we or they are “right” and we crown them as “wise.”