The longer they live, the brighter they shine

Listen.

This is good advice.

Take this to heart.

Do what I tell you—live!

And how should I live?

Embrace wisdom.

That’s it.

Make wisdom your goal.

Never walk away from wisdom.

Love wisdom.

Those are not my words by the way. They’re all from Proverbs Chapter 4. As is this –

Evil people are restless
unless they’re making trouble;
They can’t get a good night’s sleep
unless they’ve made life miserable for somebody. v16-17

Mmm…we all know people like that, don’t we?

Verse 18 is my favourite verse of this chapter –

The ways of right-living people glow with light;
the longer they live, the brighter they shine.

I’m fortunate enough to know people like this. I hope you are too. People who shine. Who glow with light and love. Who make you feel better just by spending time in their presence. It makes me think of those verses in Philippians about shining like stars –

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.  Philippians 2:14-16

The darker the night, the brighter the stars shine. The harder the situation, the more opportunity we can have to shine.

And one way to do this?

Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth;
avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. v23

Oh yes. How easy it is to be drawn in. We say one thing to someone’s face and another behind their back. How often do we end up thinking ‘I shouldn’t have said that’? I do. All the time. Saying out loud and saying in comments on Facebook. I have much to learn.

So today I shall endeavour to shine like a star – which I suspect will involve talking less and smiling more. Seems like a good start.