Dating “Wisdom”

I’m in a relationship. I think you are in one too.

But first let’s remember some of our past. I know you don’t want to, but just take this walk with me for a minute, it will be worth it.

Do you remember being in a relationship as a child? You know when you didn’t think you were a child, you were in middle school, high school, or college and you knew everything about the world around you. You weren’t even sure why you were going to school because you knew more than your parents about life, and way more than your teachers could understand.

You especially didn’t need to learn anything new about relationships because each person you were with was perfect, designed for you, your soul-mate, and someone that would never hurt you.

Until the world snapped its fingers in your face and you woke up from that false reality you had been living in. That relationship you were in ended bad, or there was the day you looked at that person and thought, “what the heck was I thinking”. The childish response where blinders were over your eyes and then removed in a moment.

Or the relationship where you remember completely getting your heart broken. Your world was shattered. You cried, and cried, and just when you thought you had no more tears, more drops starting flowing from your eyes. It was allergy season, so you equate a lot of those tears to the high pollen count for those weeks when the world felt like it stood still.

That’s all in the past now, even though the hurts are still here with you in the present.

What we have to see with the blinders off of our eyes is that we are in a relationship today.

I got stuck in Proverbs this morning, stuck in the book filled with the poetry of wisdom. I kept going back to chapter 4, to the cost of wisdom. Proverbs gives us this beautiful imagery that Wisdom is not just a concept that we read in a book, it is a relationship we are in. We are challenged to “cherish her”, to “love her” and “not to forsake her”.  Her truths are invaluable to our life.  She is a gift.  Knowledge and Comprehension are a rarity.  If we don’t listen, we abandon her.

We all know that feeling all too well right. To be forsaken. To be forgotten. To be left to feel like you aren’t actually loved by the person that said “I love you” on those bazillion phone calls. To feel tossed aside by the person you once trusted with your whole heart. That abandoned feeling that makes you scared.

Here you are today, with me, and we are seeing that we are in a relationship that we want to get right. We want to focus more on treating her, Wisdom, right because this relationship gives us promises that are true. Promises that claim “if you cherish her, she will exalt you” (vs 8); that if you “don’t forsake her, she will protect you” and “love her, and she will watch over you” (vs 6).

These are promises that are true. This relationship is real. Wisdom isn’t a concept, it is a relationship. It is a figurative “who” that we are dating, that we are courting, that wants us to commit to her.

I was never granted the beauty of having a Father around to protect me, to speak up for me, and to guard my life with the embarrassment of a Dad that I saw others wish would go away. I could only dream of having that, the relationship with their Father I would hear my friends complain about that I would sit longing to feel for just one day.

In Proverbs 4 this morning I was able to get a glimpse of a Father speaking to a future son-in-law about his daughter Wisdom. Asking this son to cherish her because she is special, to hold on to her words and not let go of them, to guard your heart to care for her (vs 23).

A Father that cares enough to speak up about his girl and ask you to care and cherish her heart, not to abandon her. We are this son-in-law.

How beautiful this is.

He is saying it to me this morning, and he is saying it to you. Cherish wisdom, date her and love her like she is a sacred relationship you are in. Obey her words because they will give you life (vs 4). Do not turn astray from her, but gaze your eyes fixated on her (vs 25) or you will lose sight of her in your unfaithfulness to form a relationship with this world.

Wisdom is a treasure, it is a beautiful relationship. The relationship you have longed for but never saw right in front of you, the relationship that will “honor you” and “exalt you” (vs 8).

You are in a relationship, I am in one too. Let’s not abandon and forsake her, we know what that feels like and she doesn’t deserve that. She deserves to be cherished. She deserves to be treated higher than gold.  To be respected and obeyed understanding the gift she has been given to us by the Father.

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, because everything you do flows from it”

 

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