Thought for the Day - Monday 10 August

Thought for the Day – Monday 10^th August

^‘ It is better to have wise people reprimand you than to have stupid people sing your praises.   When a fool laughs, it is like thorns crackling in a fire. It doesn't mean a thing.   You may be wise, but if you cheat someone, you are acting like a fool. If you take a bribe, you ruin your character.   The end of something is better than its beginning.  Patience is better than pride.  Keep your temper under control; it is foolish to harbour a grudge.  Never ask, “Oh, why were things so much better in the old days?” It's not an intelligent question.  Everyone who lives ought to be wise; it is as good as receiving an inheritance, and will give you as much security as money can. Wisdom keeps you safe—this is the advantage of knowledge.’

‘’ (Ecclesiastes 7: v5-11)

 

I came across this reading purely by accident and it made me smile just a little.  The whole chapter  reminded me a wee bit about how the old Presbyterian ministers were sometimes portrayed, the Rev. I.M. Jolly coming to mind and how they preached on misery, hell and damnation, and fire and brimstone!  The section I’ve included could possibly be summed up with the words ‘don’t be so (insert selection from large variety of adjectives) stupid’.

Can I take this opportunity for sharing a true story with you which illustrates the beginning of today’s reading?  A friend of mine played electric guitar in a group.  At the end of the night, him and the other band members were dismantling their equipment and taking it out to a van when one of the men who had made up the audience approached my friend.  He then went on to wax eloquent about how wonderful a guitar player my friend was and asking him loads of questions about how he had started out learning to play etc.  While this exchange was happening, other members of the group had been passing and were getting soundbites of the conversation and were probably a bit jealous of the amount of massaging their guitar player’s ego was getting ……that was up until what proved to be the final question – ‘is that an electric guitar?’  My friend was brought back to ground level with a bump and quickly extricated himself from the conversation to deal with his embarrassment accompanied by much hearty laughter from his band mates after learning we don’t need fools singing our praises.

Our portion of scripture continues to tell us ways of how we can avoid being stupid e.g. not laughing at the wrong things, not cheating others, not losing our temper (drivers take special note), not taking bribes, being patient, not harbouring grudges and (the one that took me by surprise) stop asking why things were much better in the old days.  I like the way this book was written because I think it may be more effective telling people that commit the sins mentioned above not to be so *** stupid rather than asking them to refrain from sinning.

Wisdom is based on knowledge which is only found in scripture so if you want to be wise, read your bible.

Prayers

 

Loving God,

We thank you for the first working day of another week and thank you for all the promise that it holds.  Impart us with the wisdom to be selective in what we watch and read and also, who and what we listen to.  Help us filter out the meaningless, the inaccurate and the misleading.  Help us be more diligent Lord in growing our wisdom by reading your Holy word and opening our hearts and minds when you are speaking to us.  Amen.