Plenty about how to learn well and work well
28 more thought-provoking proverbs in Proverbs 12. Here’s a handful of the most interesting in my opinion.
If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it—
how shortsighted to refuse correction! v1
I hope that I never lose my love for learning. I can’t imagine ever arriving at the point of knowing all that there is to know. How boring would life be then! I love trying new things. Learning new things. At the kids’ school, they have L4L days – Learning for Life. That’s what every day should be!
You can’t find firm footing in a swamp,
but life rooted in God stands firm. v3
I can remember times where I felt like I was in that swamp. Where I struggled to find solid ground. Where everything was shifting below my feet. It’s too late at that point to try relying on God if you haven’t been developing your roots way before that. It’s that tree idea again. I know where I want to be grounded. Rooted in God.
A hearty wife invigorates her husband,
but a frigid woman is cancer in the bones. v4
No comment.
Wicked people fall to pieces—there’s nothing to them;
the homes of good people hold together. v7
I find this one hard – as one who looks from the outside like her home has fallen apart. In a physical way, yes, I guess it has. We tried really hard, but could not continue to live together. But we are all still hanging in there. We still work hard to maintain relationships. We still believe that love wins.
A person who talks sense is honoured;
airheads are held in contempt. v8
No comment.
Better to be ordinary and work for a living
than act important and starve in the process. v9
Indeed.
Good people are good to their animals;
the “good-hearted” bad people kick and abuse them. v10
If you want to see what a person is like, look at how they treat their animals.
The gossip of bad people gets them in trouble;
the conversation of good people keeps them out of it. v13
No comment.
Well-spoken words bring satisfaction;
well-done work has its own reward. v14
I definitely discovered the truth of this in my work at Asda.
Fools have short fuses and explode all too quickly;
the prudent quietly shrug off insults. v16
We don’t have to rise to the bait. We don’t have to take offence. We don’t have to defend ourselves. We could try the ‘water off a duck’s back’ approach.
Evil scheming distorts the schemer;
peace-planning brings joy to the planner. v20
It’s that whole idea of ‘whatever we do affects us as much as the other person’ again.
Worry weighs us down;
a cheerful word picks us up. v25
We all know that worry achieves nothing. Now we just have to find a way to stop doing it!
A lazy life is an empty life,
but “early to rise” gets the job done. v27
Indeed.
Many of these proverbs do not require comment. None of them do really, but that would make for a very short blog post! Because that is the nature of a proverb. It is short and straight to the point. It speaks for itself. It’s meant to be easily remembered. Pick one of today’s and try to learn it and make it your own today.
