Learning the Hard Way

May 1, 2023

Experience is the best teacher? Boy, that doesn’t sound like much fun. We learn from our mistakes. The most convincing proof is to show them your scars.

I guess I’d have to agree with all that, but it sure is a negative way to look at life. Are people really that stubborn? Truthfully, yes, we are. We tend to make the same mistakes over and over. We tend to decide on a course of action and then fight against change. We make dumb choices.

The good side of all that is we acquire wisdom. When we’re old, we can advise younger people on many choices—- because we’ve chosen wrong so many times. We won’t know the answer to everything, of course, because some technology and some bad choices weren’t available yet when we were younger!

There is a better way.

Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to man, but the end is destruction.”

Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

James 1:5-6, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”

God has laid out a way of life that has worked well for centuries. We don’t stick to it very well, so we get our wisdom the hard way, by making mistakes. When we manage to have faith in the path God has provided, we avoid some of the other way of gaining wisdom…by making mistakes.

Take it or leave it.