Someone about 20 years my senior asked me for my outside perspective on a relationship problem.  After discussing sides, she exclaimed that I had a lot of wisdom. I think it was because I had lived through a similar experience and was able to share unbiased what I had learned through the why’s and how’s.   The full picture of underlying visible and invisible hurts and the accompanying consequences came into full view – we were faced with the truth. From that point of awareness, things can be rebuilt if both parties are willing to live the truth.

“Wisdom is one of those qualities difficult to define—because it encompasses so much—but which people generally recognize when they encounter it. And it is encountered most obviously in the realm of decision-making. Psychologists tend to agree that wisdom involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life as well as its ups and downs. There’s an awareness of how things play out over time, and it confers a sense of balance. It can be acquired only through experience, but by itself, experience does not automatically confer wisdom. An ability to see the big picture, a sense of proportion, and considerable introspection also contribute to its development.”

Matthew Kelly stated that wisdom is “living the truth”.  He says it’s not in amassing knowledge but in how that knowledge or truth is lived.   Take truth seriously, speak truth always, no matter how trivial” because it is in truth we find wisdom.  In Proverbs 8:6-9, Wisdom itself speaks directly:  “Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. All the words of my mouth are just, none of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge.”

Lord Have Mercy,

Paula