“If you reason with an arrogant cynic, you’ll get slapped in the face; confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins. So don’t waste your time on a scoffer; all you’ll get for your pains is abuse. But if you correct those who care about life, that’s different—they’ll love you for it! Save your breath for the wise—they’ll be wiser for it; tell good people what you know—they’ll profit from it. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of- God , insight into life from knowing a Holy God. It’s through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens, and the years of your life ripen. Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life; mock life and life will mock you.”
Proverbs 9:10 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.
Feel like getting some pointers from Lady Wisdom? Â Well, here she is telling you that if you particularly care for getting slapped, scoffed, ridiculed, kicked in the shins, and generally being abused, well then, go ahead and begin to reason with an “arrogant cynic.” Â I guess it takes time to figure out if the person truly is one — an arrogant cynic, that is — or is just having a bad day. Â Regardless, if you engage with someone like that, I suppose you ought to do so at your own peril. Â But perhaps there is a lesson even in that — even in getting abused — at least you’ve become more aware and enlightened at the sheer idiocy of it all, and have experienced the heartache that may have resulted from it. Â You’ll certainly learn more about yourself than you would about the other person, although you’ll learn plenty about that person as well, of course. Â And perhaps one of the bigger lessons would be to avoid such a person in future, and to practice caution to an extreme. Â These are all valuable life lessons, and perhaps Lady Wisdom might concur that from such a process itself, she will become more dear to you in endowing you with her essence. Â May it be that each day makes you a little wiser!
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