As time goes by, we look at events in life and we glean principles from them. These life lessons could be called “nuggets of wisdom”.
The older we grow, the more nuggets of wisdom we acquire, both from our own histories and from others’. If we don’t gain these nuggets of wisdom from others then we only gain them as time goes by. This is why older people tend to seem “wise”, but it’s not because they are wise as people.
There is a difference between acquiring wisdom and being a wise person. A wise person learns from other people’s history rather than one’s own.
Wisdom is the choice to learn from the word rather than the rod.
Too many people learn through the “university of hard knocks”. It is a personal choice to learn so slowly, nothing genetic or personality-based. Learning wisdom earlier in life will save a person from much trouble.
Waiting to let old age catch up with you before you accumulate wisdom isn’t wise at all, it’s quite a foolish thing to do. People who gain wisdom through old age aren’t wise, they are just old.
When young people are wise, they will work to gain as much wisdom from others as they can. We often refer to these wise, young people as “old souls”. It is the love for wisdom that marks an old soul.
Love for wisdom is a lifelong pursuit. It is a virtue of the heart and a core framework of one’s worldview. Those who love wisdom will reach for it, even at the cost of less success than those around them. Wisdom is among the godly virtues that prioritize Eternal and Heavenly things above carnal, temporary things of the physical world.
All the success in the world will do you no good if you lack the wisdom to wield it.
God possesses all wisdom, all wisdom comes from God, and all wisdom leads back to God.
Wisdom begins with fearing God. This means that fearing God will unlock your ability to gain wisdom. It also means that learning to fear God is the first nugget of wisdom learned. In other words, godliness and wisdom are inseparable.
Proverbs 1:7; 2:2; 4:20; 9:10; 16:16; 22:17-18, Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36