Are you wise, or just smart?

Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. - Proverbs 9:9

The famous author and inventor, Arthur C. Clarke once wrote,

For every man, education should be a process which continues all his life. We have to abandon, as swiftly as possible, the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40—and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20? 

There’s a misconception many people have today that once they’re finished with formal schooling, they have nothing left they need to learn. They passed all their tests and have a diploma on the wall, yet in all their time of growing smart, they’ve never truly discovered what it means to grow wise.

The reality is that finishing school should actually be the beginning of a life-long learning process that never ends. It’s a starting point that you’ve reached by becoming smart, but actual wisdom is attained through life experience. That’s exactly why you have young men and women who graduated at the top of their class, yet struggle when they get out into the real world—they have to grow in wisdom.

Never, ever stop learning. Immerse yourself in the wisdom of the Word daily. Ask God to give you clarity and understanding when it comes to applying it to your life. When you do, you’ll find out that there’s so much more to be learned than you already know!

Prayer Challenge

Pray that God would give you the discipline to continue growing in wisdom all the days of your life!