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Yes, we survived the holiday weekend and have earned a reprieve… Here’s some wisdom for this week.
Don’t corner something that is meaner than you.
Donβt pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, heβll just kill you.
It donβt take a very big person to carry a grudge.
You cannot unsay a cruel word.
Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
Don’t be banging your shin on a stool that’s not in the way.
Borrowing trouble from the future doesn’t deplete the supply.
***
I try to post first thing in the week. Last week we got waylaid. Iβm finally getting here. At least Iβve survived.
We did have a special fourth of July, but not without prayer. However, every celebration gets several rounds of prayer. Every one of them.
Triggered memoriesβMy mother finished 8th grade back in the late 1930s. High school was nice, but not a necessity in those days. There were three children in her family and only her oldest sibling, a sister, finished high school.
As I wrote, education was good but not a necessity. As long as you could read, write, and do mathematics, things were fine. By seventh and eighth grade most children in that day, knew more than high school kids of today.
Indeed, my Uncle went through the military and served during WWII with only a seventh-grade education. In earlier generations, it was as if life was short and they didnβt have time to waste.
My mother had thoughts on education that she wasnβt afraid to share. Thoughts such as higher education did not necessarily make people smarter. Thoughts such as an educated idiot is still just anβ
I donβt know how she formulated some of her views, but they were still accurate. I didnβt seek out a college education for myself nor for my own children. Some of them acquired a college degree or two anyway.
I am not weighing in on the controversy of our day other than to say I agree that it seems highly unfair to require someone who did not go to college, did not end up with one of those degrees, and didnβt spend an incredible amount of money for the honor of a degree to pay for someone else who did sign up for all of those things.
What I have seen is that well-meaning parents send their offspring to one of the higher learning centersβeven Christian collegesβto receive often not their children back, but strangers.
Strangers who no longer believe the same tenants as the parents. Strangers who depending on what institution they attended, come home radicalized and weird and donβt share any of their parentβs values.
I have an idea that my mother sensed that this was where higher education was going. I know in my world it was what I saw happening, even in my own generation. For my children it wasnβt somewhere I wanted to put my money, and if my children wanted that they could pay for it themselves.
Educationβwhat is it and where does it come from? Does it always make a person wise? As a childβ¦ and as an adult, the phrase βdonβt be smart with meβ meant something entirely different than, βYou are a smart personβ.
We have access to information at the tips of our fingersβsometimes. If Iβm in need of information on a specific question Iβm in luck if someone with a smartphone is handy. On the other side, when those phones arenβt working right? Iβve also heard the threat, βI was tempted to see how far a smartphone can fly.β
***
Smart is no longer just memorization. In many country schools, memorization was the basic foundation that knowledge was built on. And it was a good foundation. But it was only a foundation.
Smart is not just access to information. A person who chooses not to access the information is still clueless.
Smart can include Situational awareness, Clarity of goals, Good taste, and Empathy for others. It definitely must endeavor to hone the ability to make decisions that further your goals.
The good news is that smart is a choice, and smart is a skill, and as a skill needs to be taught and used wisely.
Job 32:
4 Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.
5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.
6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.
7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
9 Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.
10 Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion.
11 Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say. 12 Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words:
