God taught me to listen…

"Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days." - Proverbs 19:20 NKJV
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Have you ever considered the different stages in our lives when it comes to making decisions? As teenagers we’ve all thought we know so much, but as we get older, we learn the meaning of, “The older I get, the more I realise the less I know.”

As we grow up, our desire to prove ourselves seems to outweigh the humility of seeking advice from others. There is something inside many of us that says, “I’ll work it out on my own” and we struggle through life learning what works and what doesn’t. Some decisions are prudent whilst others bring pain.

However, I love watching younger men and women seeking advice from those who are older, and then seeing them apply that wisdom to their own decisions. It’s not that they are able to make better decisions than others, it’s because they are smart enough to seek out wisdom from others who have gone before them rather than thinking they know better. Proverbs 4:7 simply says it this way, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom.”

None of us have all the answers. That’s why Proverbs, the book of wisdom, instructs us to ‘listen to counsel and receive instruction’. Learn to listen, and you will see a growth of wisdom in you that others will begin to notice. When they ask how you got so wise, you can simply say, “God taught me to listen.”

Declaration Starter:
“I declare that wisdom is growing in me. I choose to hear counsel, to receive instruction and to accept correction, because my desire is to pursue the wisdom of God…”