Wisdom

To me, my grandmother (mother's mother) was THE wisest woman on the planet. She was so calm and quiet. If I did something wrong, she never held a grudge and always gave me words of solid advice. I often wonder at what point wisdom will start to ooze out of every word I say? When I'm seventy? Eighty? It's almost as if there is a day in life where all our experiences form together into this halo of wisdom people can see shine from us.
I know it's ridiculous. Wisdom calls everyone. Maybe it's just that the older we get, the easier it is to listen.
Reading Proverbs 1, wisdom is like a little old lady saying, "I told you so." Seriously. The verses start off with Solomon advising his son to avoid evil people who wish to lure him into sin. Next wisdom is calling, "Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise. (Pro 1:23)" Then, after the people ignored her for so long, wisdom gives up. "I called you so often, but you wouldn't come...So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you. (Pro 1:24...26)" Honestly, it's like what I say to the kids who decide to disobey the rules by jumping off the playground equipment and hurt themselves: "See, that's why the rules are there. You wouldn't be hurt right now if you had listened." I admit (and you may think I'm cruel), I hold almost no pity for them. I think my favorite verse is 1:31: "Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes." This is like "you reap what you sow,"  but it sounds far more disgusting.

There are so many words of wisdom out there. I bumped into one written by a 11 or 13 year old. It said, "Don't look at where you fell but where you slipped." Isn't that great for advising people on how not to fall into temptation again? And then there's the well-known saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." So true. However, the unfortunate reality is that not all wise old sayings are wise. Proverbs 2:6 says the Lord gives wisdom. Thus, if a wise saying isn't Biblical, it's not wise at all. It didn't come from the Lord.
When looking up wise sayings, I ran across a subject where the wise sayings (for the most part) weren't Biblical.  The subject was trust. Most sayings about trust either said not to trust people and to trust our hearts. HA. Jesus makes it perfectly clear our hearts are wicked. Mark 7:21 says, "For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder..." The list continues, but you get the point. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
Today's music, movies, and television are all spurring this false wisdom. They say, "Follow your heart!" How many affairs and other sin has been the result of someone following his or her heart? It's so selfish, it's sick! We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37). We must control our hearts. Not the other way around. We should let the Spirit lead us. If we follow God, we're sure not to sin (Gal. 5:16).
Be careful when taking secular advice. By all means, it's not all bad. Sometimes, though, we confuse worldly wisdom with Godly wisdom. The two should not mingle.