Someone posted a comment here but my computer keeps shutting down just as I finish writing my comment and right before I push the save button...so... Because of my uncooperative computer and the fact that the original post was posted in August so you might not notice the comment, let's reopen the discussion.

I agree with most of the comment and that wisdom is learned through life and living and making choices - not from the best teaching and learning curriculum, but as educators I think we need to take note that all of Proverbs is about learning wisdom. God commended Solomon for asking for wisdom. Somehow, somewhere in Solomon's life wisdom became a valuable commodity to him, more valuable than riches.

Every human being has opportunity to learn wisdom throughout their lifetime. Some people do, some don't and to greater or lesser degrees. Why? I would like to propose that it has something to do with how we learn to process life which I expect is affected by the learning environment we grow up in. For all the hours we spend in educational institutions over the course of our lifetime, where do we learn to focus on learning wisdom if someone in our family or faith community doesn't steer us in that direction?

Many cultures know who their "wise ones" are and those people are held in highest esteem for their wisdom. Did you ever send a child to a wise person for an answer? And I'm not talking about the internet. Wisdom is valued in scripture - more than gold but we don't think about it. We don't talk about it. We hardly notice it. When was the last time you heard an adult say to a child (or another adult for that matter) "That was a wise thing to say," or "That was a wise thing to do?" Do we encourage it? Can we encourage it? Without drawing undue attention to that which is by nature unassuming? If so, how? When is the last time any of us told that very wise person in our life, "Thank you! You are so wise!" When is the last time you heard a child say, "I want to be wise like so & so when I grow up. Pray for me to be wise."

That's all I mean...

I had a friend who used to read a different version of the scriptures when he read through the Bible each year. I've been using Holman's translation lately. You have to love children to minister to children but if you are going to teach the life-giving scriptures need to filter, feed and fill every fiber of your being, myself included.

If you looked up stories about hate (see previous post), did you look up stories about love? mercy? compassion? If you do a word study, read the story around the passage. Or see how many stories you can think of where God demonstrated His love, mercy, compassion and that's what the scriptures say is happening. Where are the stories in scripture about hate? Check out those stories.

Ecclesiastes 3 is full of contrast - a time for this, a time for that ... not just love and hate. The scriptures confirm that, but have you ever taken each of these and searched the scriptures for the "when"?

birth/death
plant/uproot
kill/heal
tear down/built up
weep/laugh
mourn/dance
throw stones/gather stones (Jesus had a story about that)
embrace/avoid embracing
search/count as lost
keep/throw away
tear/sew
be silent/speak
love/hate
war/peace

How many of these can you find in the scriptures? How many did Jesus talk about? What did He say?