Wisdom
Is Ageless
Do not forsake wisdom…
Proverbs 4:6
The two mowers droned as they moved
back-n-forth in adjoining yards; one pushed by a man in his fifties,
the other by a young Amish boy no older than nine. The man had been
mowing his lawn since his early teens. Being Amish, the boy had
probably been mowing for a few years himself.
Occasionally, the man glanced to watch
the boy, observing his ability to push a mower larger than himself,
and judged the wisdom of the neighbor for hiring such a young boy to
do such a potentially dangerous job.
The boy finished as the man was mowing
the final few strips at the back edge of his property. He watched as
the boy pushed his mower to the edge of the hill, just above where
the weeds were allowed to flourish, tipped it on its side so the
handle held the weight of the mower, and used a heavy stick to clean
the clippings from the underside of the deck, rendering it ready for
future use. Then the boy and his driver loaded up and drove away.
Having always cleaned his mower just
prior to mowing, the man decided to try the boy’s clean-up method.
Surprisingly, he discovered the clippings were removed with greater
ease when done this way!
Young he may be…the Amish boy had
been well-taught and had inadvertently passed along to the older man
a nugget of wisdom.
†
It would have been easy for the man to
dismiss the boy’s actions, believing he knew the better way to
clean his mower, and in doing so he would have missed out on an
easier, simpler way of completing the task.
When we become close-minded toward
learning we have lost the potential to grow and gain wisdom. Solomon
called it forsaking wisdom.
As simple as this story is, it makes
the point quite well. Are we willing to remain open to learning until
death, from someone of questionable age?
Jesus said we must become as a child to
enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It applies to gaining wisdom as well.
Prayer
“Lord, may I never be so
ignorant as to refuse to learn from whomever You place in my life to
teach me something. Help me remain open-minded and observant. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
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