“For the Lord gives wisdom,
and from His mouth come
knowledge and understanding.”

Earlier this summer I attended a Saturday morning men’s breakfast with Greg in Maryland. One of the men was getting married the next weekend. Each man there, whether they were married or single was given the chance to impart wisdom to the groom to be.

Both single and married men spoke words of wisdom. Forgive each other, don’t take each other for granted, remember to do the little things, romance her like you did before you asked her to marry you, tell her you love her often, thank God everyday for your wife, and more.

The pastor, who is married thirty-five years, remarked that he was taking notes, so he could try some of the suggestions out on his wife.  As I reflected on the advice that was given that morning it was obvious some of this wisdom was learned from mistakes, some was learned by observing other marriages, and some was learned by listening to others, but all of the wisdom came from God.

The advice was based on the Biblical truths of

1 Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy, it does not boast.
It is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps not record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
and always perseveres.”

And Ephesians 5
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife
as Christ is the head of the church,
His body, of which He is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ,
so also wives should submit to their husbands
in everything.”

I don’t think there is a single married woman who would object to this Biblical truth if husbands today exemplified the wisdom imparted to husbands in

Ephesians 5
“Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church
and gave Himself up for her to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water
through the Word,
and to present her to himself
as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any blemish,
but holy and blameless.
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives
as their own bodies.”

This is not good advice. This is Godly advice. It becomes the choice of every bride and groom to accept it or reject it. As is the choice of every human being with regards to every bit of advice or wisdom that God imparts to us.

Who doesn’t want to see our country, our world for that matter at peace? God’s Words of Wisdom on this matter is this,

We want the forgiveness and the healing of our land, but are we willing to commit to the humbling of ourselves, the praying, the seeking of God’s face and the turning from our sins.

Solomon, who is imparting advice to his son in Proverbs 2 and 4 begins by saying,

If ever there is an example of someone who totally did this it is Solomon. When Solomon became king God told Solomon to ask for anything that he desired and God would give it to him. Most people remember that Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people. For the earlier part of his reign, Solomon trusted and honored God. He sought God’s wisdom revealed in the scriptures and made his decisions based on God’s Word.

Solomon is just one of 12 people described in the Bible as being wise. He is also the perfect example of what happens when we neglect, compromise and abandon God's given wisdom.

One has to wonder if this is not a similar path that the United States is taking. Once a nation founded on God’s ten Commandments and now a country battling over the removal of a monument with those same commandments. While it seems unlikely that the monument will be removed, the same was said about the removal of prayer from public school forty years ago.

What gives me greater concern about the courts decision is that it reflects a trend that prayer and the ten commandments have been taken out of the home. It reflects a trend that our goals and more self-centered than God-centered.  It reflects a trend that we are becoming Biblical illiterates.  We choose relative truth over absolute truth.

I find it scary that in a society that places such emphasis on education and learning that we have become so blasé in teaching our children God’s Word.  It is a clear indication that we have lost respect for God.

Wisdom is gained through a constant process of growing.

First, you must trust and honor God

Second, you must realize that the Bible reveals God’s wisdom to us.

Third, you must make a life-long series of right choices and avoid moral pitfalls.

Fourth, when we make sinful or mistaken choices, you must learn from your errors and recover.

Pray for all aspects of wisdom and take steps to develop them in your lives. As James 1:5 states,