A Wise Heart

A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2
Many people today are not wise. This verse above is not referring to our political leanings, right being conservative, and left being liberal. It is referring more to right and wrong thinking and not to which way we lean politically. I chuckled at this the first time I read this in our current political climate.  Many are not wise, we are not evaluating things based on logic or common sense. I do not mean this in a political sense except that it seems to show up in political conversations. If it be the new Supreme court nominee or the congressional hearings on these FBI and DOJ corruption. You can easily tell how a person leans politically after just a few words out of their mouths. When the average person is discussing these events and commenting on face book, you can always tell which way they lean. This is not wisdom to consider the right and wrong of something based on political leaning. But read what people write or listen closely to what they say. Today it seems we base truth on our political leanings instead of basing our leaning on truth. Political beliefs supersede truth if it be a news journalist or our average citizen. I am not saying this about just the left, I believe both sides are doing the same thing. I believe I do it also if I don't watch myself. Truth should be independent of my political leaning. But read or listen to almost any political discussion and party loyalty trumps truth. Let me just be clear I lean to the right but I feel the right has the same problem. If we lean left or right we tend to think it is only the other side. But it is all of us more than any of us will admit.  We need to seek truth again independent of political leanings. God's word is truth, on that we can depend. Now you can justify some liberal ideas based on truth just as well as you can base conservative ideas. Where our country has survived and done well is when we worked together. I feel most discussions on face book lead to a face book fight on right versus left, and is not sharing of ideas.  I want to stand for what I believe but I don't want to fight and start throwing jabs at another individual because they think differently than me. Someone on PragerU talked about tolerance and intolerance and it was almost comical to read the responses. You could tell almost immediately if they were conservative thinking or liberal in their political beliefs. We build walls and divide ourselves even in families over political beliefs. We are not wise, we are not building our country stronger when we do this. We really need to sit down and really listen and not be looking for our next reply. When we do that always looking for our next reply, we really do not listen. We are not wise when we don't leaving the politics out of this and listen carefully. I have seen it in my own life in painful ways when I do not carefully listen to what someone is saying when discussing or answering a question. Right leaning is not always right nor is left leaning always right. I person that believes a Ford is always the best vehicle or a Chevrolet is always the best vehicle based on their preference is a fool. A person that believes their personal favorite color is always the best color is a fool. Wisdom will at times look beyond our personal preferences to find what is best in a particular situation. Hind sight is 20/20. When I look back and I had asked someone for advice on hiring a certain contractor, I missed their wisdom because I didn't listen carefully. I learned later what they were really saying through a hard lesson. I could have saved money and aggravation if I had listened. I believe we are headed to some hard times in this country because we really do not listen to each other. I have been married five times and divorced and looking back I missed some wisdom given to me but I didn't listen and I really could have avoided a lot of pain and trouble if I had listened carefully. Instead I went ahead doing what I wanted to do anyway and paid for a lesson the hard way. I pray that God will help us to unite as one and seek truth instead of always trying to win. A lot of times the younger generation can save themselves a lot of trouble if they will listen to the older generation that has lived through some things. Wisdom will help us avoid paying for painful lessons if we will just listen. Sometimes I am not sure I explain things as well as I think them in my head, but I try. I remember years ago when I was thinking about marrying a lady. I asked a minister that knew this individual and he said something about I had a good heart but what I needed was a wise heart. I listened and I think that time I got it, I could have had another disaster if I had married that young lady. She was 20 years younger than I and her lifestyle was 180 degrees different than mine. What a disaster that could have been had I not listen carefully. Hindsight is 20/20. Another time when I was single, a man I worked with was trying to get a cousin of his wife married so she could stay in this country. The young lady was only 23 and I was in my early 50's. I didn't think twice about that. He tried to appeal to my human nature to convince me. Sometimes we just need to stop and think things through. If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.  Ecclesiastes 10:10  God bless LVZ.