Seeking Wisdom

My house is quiet. The kids are finally in bed, and I can breathe deeply again. It's been long day. As I sweep my kitchen floor for the last time today, I contemplate the direction my life is headed, and I plead with God for wisdom. 

Parenting requires wisdom. Relationships require wisdom. Life requires wisdom! Today I found myself once again stuck between a rock  and a hard place, desperate to do the right thing and just sinful enough to hate doing it. (and no, I'm not talking about sweeping the kitchen floor.)

I needed wisdom.

Not just the knowledge of right and wrong (although sometimes I need that too), but the grace and strength to do it. I need the divinely inspired knowledge presented in God’s Word, and I need to know how to use it. Wisdom is knowledge in action. It’s knowing the right thing to do and discerning the appropriate time to do it.

But yet so often I find myself lost and confused in a sea of choices. Right or left? Up or down? In or out?  

I just want to follow Jesus! And today, He silently he led me to Proverbs 2.

My son, if you receive my words,And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom;  From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

So often I find myself unprepared for the battles in life. I don’t spend enough time digging into the Word of God, treasuring His commands, applying them to my heart, and crying out for discernment. So when temptation hits, struggles comes, and questions loom in my heart, I find myself desperately seeking answers. I turn to friends for advice, google for how-to videos, and self-help books seeking to diagnose and treat my problems (in 3 simple steps no less!).

And while these are all great ways to get lots of information, none of them compare to the wisdom that only comes from God, the One who created the world and everything in it. So how do we get this wisdom? 

Only then will we have the knowledge and understanding necessary to discern all the information the world has to offer. Only then will we be able to clearly see the path God has chosen for us. 

However, this process takes time, as I am painfully reminded again and again. I need to spend more time in prayer and less time worrying about the decisions that weigh me down. I need to make time daily to seek after the hidden treasures of God, listening to the only true source of wisdom. 

And as I seek to grow these disciplines in my life, it’s my utmost desire that someday those who look at me will finally see that Godly woman I so long to be. 

A beautiful woman speaking in kindness and with great wisdom.

 “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.” Proverbs 31:26