Choose Wisely Students of Life
Wisely Choosing Wisdom
Choose Wisely Students of Life – has to rank into the top 5 lessons of my walk with the Lord. I originally wrote an article about it a few years ago, but there is something in me that needs to get more out. Please, I urge you, utilize the blessed knowledge the Lord has given you that is immediately available (choosing wisely) –
Analyze, examine, and evaluate
What I find is that we have 2 main subject matters to pay close attention to 1) The Word of God and 2) Ourselves. For the most part, this topic will be on ourselves.
The Word says to be watchful and pray. The Word also says to examine ourselves. A good student will pay close attention to the subject matter. H/She will evaluate the material, examine it, analyze, and be watchful for additional lessons, barriers, etc. This is basically using the intellect and gaining knowledge.
Pertaining to the topic of ourselves, we have situations that arise in our life which help form our characters. Challenges in life arise when we do not recognize the lesson. When we are unable to recognize a lesson when we are living it, this is basically a poor student. Chances are, it is a student who has their mind on other things besides the teaching.
Thus, when we pay close attention, we can actually see the teaching. How can it be seen? Evaluate, examine and analyze your past in relation to the present. This is not to say to look backwards and have regrets. It is meant to look back at similar events in our lives and evaluate them. Do a detailed examination and analysis of the event. Watch how the situation began, look at the people involved, see the words that were spoken, evaluate the emotions that were triggered, analyze the outcome, etc. Basically, it’s so easy – Look for the pattern/repeated events. When this is done, we now have knowledge for our current events.
Watching for Wisdom
Being a wise student of life cannot take place unless the aforementioned is understood. Once it is understood, wisdom is the gained knowledge. The wise learn from the patterns and know how to respond the next time the repeated event presents itself. This is being a wise student. This is a student who now has knowledge, and is watching for the event to present itself again (it will).
The way I see it, if we just go about life without learning and watching for events to arise (so we can act appropriately), then we are basically sucked into the world. A good student of life means to me: Always in class and/or putting into action what has been learned.
Choose Wisely
To choose wisely is to take all of the aforementioned and act accordingly.
For instance: I evaluate my life, and now have knowledge that when ___ happens, I think/feel/respond in ___ manner. I can analyze that situation and intelligently see the results. Typically, in many situations, we will know the results because we will see that they have happened 1000s of times in our lives. If my response aligns with the character and teachings of Jesus Christ, then there is nothing to consider here. Lesson is learned, keep doing it!
If my response does not align with the character of Jesus Christ, then I now have this blessed wisdom in order to choose wisely the next time it happens. I’ve used this before, but it is sooo good – Einstein once said that insanity is described as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. If my eyes and expectations are on another person and/or an outside situation to change, and it has failed every time, then it appears that I’m not making very wise choices with my intellect. Or, sometimes, I will ignore the intellect because of egoism.
Well, for some reason, I still feel like something isn’t said in the manner that I’m trying to say it. I’m sure I’ll follow-up eventually once this bursts out of my gut.
Bless you and yours,
joseph
