Navigating

“A wise child brings joy to a father; a foolish child brings grief to a mother.”  Proverbs 10:1 (NLT)

 No one wants to be a fool … but sometimes we do foolish things.  At least I do.  Do something foolish once?  Let me learn from it.  Let it make me better.  Fortunately, I have a Savior that covers me and my foolish choices.  But to continue in a pattern of foolish choices?  Well, then, perhaps the shoe fits … and I should wear it.

But we never want to admit this, do we?  We always have excuses and justifications for the choices that we make.  And yet, objectively, we make foolish choices all the time.

Take, for example, choices I see (and sometimes make) in the fitness arena:  you don’t want to miss your workout, so you workout anyway even though you are sick or injured.  Or this one: you don’t have time to work out regularly, so you work out extra hard when you do make it to the gym.  Neither one of those choices is very wise, but sometimes we choose one “offense” to avoid another one.   And sometimes the other offense is actually worse than the first.

This happens in other areas of life too.  We forego the piece of cake, then end up eating a bag of chips later.  We don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, so we speak untruths.  We tend to our children’s needs and, in doing so, overlook our spouses’.  We strive to be true to someone else, so we end up lying to ourselves and living in untruth.

The ways of wisdom are hard to navigate sometimes.  It’s hard sometimes to determine better from best … or to decide which is the lesser of two evils … or to take the time and have the vulnerability to open up to a third possibility.  No one wants to be a fool, but finding the way of wisdom can be challenging sometimes.  Sometimes the best choice is different than it first appears.

I pray that I might always learn from my mistakes and foolish choices and sin.  But more than that, I pray that I might learn the ways of wisdom.  To honor God.  To be true to others and to myself.  To serve everyone I can in the proper order of service.  To always speak the truth in love.

And sometimes, to eat the dang piece of cake!