The Process of Developing Wisdom

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Character is simply habit long continued.”

~Plutarch (c. AD 46-c. 119), philosopher and historian

“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), essayist and philosopher

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.”

~Helen Keller (1880-1968), author and activist

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

~Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born American actor and politician

“Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.”

~J. C. Watts, former football player and U.S. Representative

“For you can have no greater sign of a more confirmed pride than when you think that you are humble enough.”

~William Law (1686-1761) in A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

~James 1:5 (ESV)

“If you turn at my reproof,

behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;

I will make my words known to you.”

~Proverbs 1:23 (ESV), the voice of Wisdom speaking

“The creature who is not filled with love of God necessarily love himself most.”

~Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), German reformer in Loci Communes

SERMON PASSAGE

Proverbs 2:1-22 (ESV)

1 My son, if you receive my words

   and treasure up my commandments with you,

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom

   and inclining your heart to understanding;

3 yes, if you call out for insight

   and raise your voice for understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver

   and search for it as for hidden treasures,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord

   and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom;

  from his mouth come knowledge

  and understanding;

7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

   he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

8 guarding the paths of justice

   and watching over the way of his saints.

9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice

   and equity, every good path;

10 for wisdom will come into your heart,

   and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11 discretion will watch over you,

   understanding will guard you,

12 delivering you from the way of evil,

from men of perverted speech,

13 who forsake the paths of uprightness

   to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 who rejoice in doing evil

   and delight in the perverseness of evil,

15 men whose paths are crooked,

   and who are devious in their ways.

16 So you will be delivered from

   the forbidden woman,

   from the adulteress with her smooth words,

17 who forsakes the companion of her youth

   and forgets the covenant of her God;

18 for her house sinks down to death,

   and her paths to the departed;

19 none who go to her come back,

   nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way of the good

   and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21 For the upright will inhabit the land,

   and those with integrity will remain in it,

22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

   and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.