Discernment
And how it might improve someone’s quality of living.
Sometimes when my thinking has become lazy and there is no one to push back, I tend to believe and say foolish things, like, “Schools aren’t what they used to be. They are not educating children as well as when I was a kid.”
Anytime I’m the example I am choosing to use as what something or someone aught to emulate, take it to the bank, there isn’t much to the argument.
Why do I say this?
Because I wasn’t at the top of the heap at school when it came to raw brains or raw ambition and drive. I was a pretty good student, but I’m not the ideal or highest standard others necessarily need to emulate.
What I think is closer to the truth is that there is some training best taught in the School of Real Life.
Classrooms don’t cut it.
In fact this information is best transferred from a mentor to the student, mother to daughter, or father to a son.
With this thought in mind, let’s look at this two-verse proverb.
My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
Proverbs 5:1-2
The first verse is saying, “Let me teach you the art of discretion.”
Where in a classroom has this been the subject?
Perhaps it’s useful in negotiations or game theory to know not to show your cards and someone might find something like it in a graduate school course, but it should be taught, according to the context of this passage, in childhood. And not taught to everyone at once, but coming from a dad to his kid.
Learning what not to say and when not to say it are huge subjects to master in life.
A lot of people who don’t understand this can be found today on social media and it is the discerning viewer or reader who is able to navigate the shallow to find a few pearls here and there.