Craig Clouston

 

Wisdom Is Ageless

August 8

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.”