31 Days With the Book of Proverbs: A Daily Bible Study – Day 13
“Fools think their way is right, but the wise listen to advice.”
Proverbs 12:1
Lawrence was always ready to give advice. Lawrence was an old guy, who was the live-in caretaker of the cottage association where Kay and I owned a cottage. The cottage was one of 81, all built in the 1870’s and 1880’s, and I do believe they stood by virtue of paint and habit. I used to say the only plumb wood in my cottage is what I installed! And something was always wrong. One summer our sewer line clogged, and I had to dig it up without even knowing where it ran. I started to dig a trench, horizontal, hoping to bisect the sewer line, but I had no idea how deep to make it. Lawrence came over, chewing tobacco, spat once or twice, and pointed and said “Dig here.” Oh well, I reasoned, humor him. I dug a few more inches, and, lo, the sewer line. He then counseled me how to replace it. “Hmmph,” he cried, “you’re the first preacher who ever listened to me.”
Lawrence you see was a rather unsavory character in some ways, like bathing, wearing clean clothes, and he loved a “few cold ones.” But he knew what he was talking about when it came to those 81 wooden “mansions.” I’m glad I listened. Listening to advice is sometimes hard. We think we know best. But wise persons are ready to receive advice in many ways. We’ll listen to our stock brokers, but not always to those who are older than we, and perhaps possessed of common sense and simple wisdom. Proverbs 12 is a chapter devoted to two ways of living, the way of the righteous, and the way of the sinner. And the clear implication is, choose wisely and “listen carefully!”
Drew Harvey
Photo by Brody Childs on Unsplash
