by Gary Lundberg . . . .
“Oh, dear Lord, give me wisdom in deciding what to do.” How often have each of us silently prayed these words or ones similar to this? Most of us want to do what is best and know in our hearts that we need help beyond our own capabilities.
I have pondered this desire for wisdom and asked myself, “What is wisdom and when do we get it?” Is there some magical time when we can say, “I now have wisdom”? My mind went to the story of King Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, and how he was known for his great wisdom. I reviewed the scriptures around his being anointed king and realized he was about age twelve, which gave me new insight concerning his discussion with the Lord. When he said that he was “but a little child” now makes sense. Here is his conversation with the Lord and the answer he received:
And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in … Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. (1 Kings 3:7,9-12)
Wisdom is knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity [the quality of being sage, wise, or able to make good decisions.], discernment, or insight. It is an ideal that has been celebrated since antiquity as the application of knowledge needed to live a good life. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom)
I found a similarity in this definition and the request of Solomon. Solomon requested to be able to discern between good and evil and this definition states the knowledge of what is true and right coupled with judgment as to action with the application needed to live a good life.
There are three words that stick out in my mind: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. How do these fit together in the process of living a good life? Knowledge is the search for the facts, the information surrounding our lives. Understanding is being able to get meaning out of the facts that lead to our reasoning and developing principles to guide us. Wisdom is the application of principles that leads us to action, knowing what to do next. This becomes a process that needs to flow from one step to the next with the result of bringing peace. Maybe this could give us a clue to pray for an understanding heart to be able to see and hear the wisdom from the Lord.
Learning from a Man Much Younger
I first met Earl Kaufman when I served as bishop to a freshman ward at Brigham Young University. After our first sacrament meeting, I was able to shake the hand of each of the ward members. As the numbers thinned out there were two young men waiting, and they came up and one introduced himself as a ward member. The other said his name was Earl and that he was this man’s friend, and wanted permission to attend our ward even though he was not a member of the Church. I told them they were both welcome. These two men were football players and Earl was the place kicker for the team.
July 14th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
One of my favorite philosophies/idioms to add to your list: “If there is no change, there is no change.” or in Math terms, 2 + 0 is still 2. In
the case of Earl, I always tell people, “If you can’t change the people around you – change the people around you.” Since Earl couldn’t convince his friends to live a better life, (since he couldn’t change the people around him,) he went and found better friends, (he changed the people around him.”
July 15th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Keep up the good work, I like your writing.