Good words in the game of Life

     

     

     "I'd like to think I am growing slowly wise, or, wising up in my later years." 

     
     Recently, I have been musing on the subject of wisdom and the difference between it and knowledge. Wisdom is often defined as the ability to discern or judge what is true, right or lasting. 
     On the other hand, knowledge is defined as having information through experience, reasoning or acquaintance which is gathered over time. Wisdom, in turn, shows itself by acting on that knowledge. So, if one lacks knowledge, he or she, will also lack wisdom. 
     English poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it "common sense to an uncommon degree". It is not the white hair that engenders wisdom, though we have often heard it said, but, the lessons learned while doing life. 

"By the time you're 80 years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it". 

— Comedian, George Burns

     I'd like to think I've acquired some gentle bits of wisdom from the journey I've been on thus far.

     "I'm learning to keep my words soft and sweet, 

just in case I have to eat them." 

Here are a few:

• I'm learning a good example has more value than good advice.
• I'm learning to keep my words soft and sweet, just in case I have to eat them.
• I'm learning to refrain from gossip.
• I'm learning to focus not on what I lack, but on what I have.
• I'm learning to grasp every opportunity to show my family and friends that I love them.
• I'm learning that I still have a lot to learn. 

     I was fascinated with this old Yiddish word, mensch, that I came across recently. 

     "A mensch is someone who is true, sensible, wise enough to be no longer naive, but not cynical, a person who gives advice for our benefit rather than his or her own." 

     A mensch acts not out of fear, or out of a desire to make a good impression, but out of a strong inner conviction of who he or she is and what he or she stands for — one of integrity. Sounds like wisdom, personified. 
     King Solomon — wiser than any man who ever lived, — is credited with writing many wise sayings from the Book of Proverbs. A worthwhile read and a great road map for living, Solomon says, 

"The fear (loving reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10).  

And again in Ecclesiastes 8:1, he writes, "Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance." 
     "What does wisdom look like? Wisdom is: peaceful, caring, flexible, forgiving, given to kind words, acts of courtesy, humble, gentle and gracious to the core." 
     There is a secular wisdom that many are striving for, but, there is also the offer of a godly wisdom that James 1:5 says, we should ask God for. 
     I believe those who pursue godly wisdom add beauty and honour to their lives. 

"Someone once aptly said,'There's a big difference between being SMART and being WISE.'" 

     
I want to always strive for the latter.

— beulah