One easy way to become wiser

DAILY BIBLE READING:

2 Chronicles 1:1–3:17 
Romans 6:1-23 
Psalm 16:1-11 
Proverbs 19:20-21

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Proverbs 19:20 (CSB) "Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

I'm one of those guys that likes to sit in the chairs in the mall and watch people. I like to observe how they act when they are alone. I watch how they interact with those they are with and how they act around those perceived to be strangers.

One thing I've noticed about most of us - we want others to think highly of us. We want others to see us in very positive terms.

So, motivated by this self-centered pride, we find it difficult to take counsel from others. We are afraid that if we are always listening and appearing to learn from others, then they may think that we aren't that smart.

That's why we like to periodically spout off our two cents worth in conversations and why we find it so difficult to listen and learn from others.

Yet, our Verse for Today essentially tells us to swallow our sinful pride, listen and learn from others.

Proverbs 19:20 (CSB) "Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life."

Simply put, we don't learn when we are drawing from our own well. We only learn when we sit at the well of others' knowledge and draw from it.

A Sunday School teacher once told me: "God gave us one mouth and two ears because He apparently wants us to listen twice as much as we talk."

That's great counsel. And when we abide by it, we will "be wise(r) later in life."