30 Sayings of the Wise

Sitting in the hot tub tonight under a black sky with stars poking their pinpointed lights through, I was perusing Proverbs and came across these thirty truths. I thought I should type them up and post them — both for my own sake and for anyone else who might want to consider them and take them to heart. 

30 Sayings of the Wise: From The Message and with my comments.
Proverbs 22:22-Proverbs 24:22

22:17-21 Listen carefully to my wisdom; take to heart what I can teach you. You’ll treasure its sweetness deep within; you’ll give it bold expression in your speech. To make sure your foundation is trust in God, I’m laying it all out right now just for you. I’m giving you thirty sterling principles — tested guidelines to live by. Believe me—these are truths that work, and will keep you accountable to those who sent you.

TRUTH 1
22-23 Don’t walk on the poor just because they’re poor, and don’t use your position to crush the weak, Because God will come to their defense; the life you took, He’ll take from you and give back to them. [Taking advantage of people is not something God looks favorably on. Just because some is not as educated or as financially well off, doesn’t mean they can be exploited.]

TRUTH 2
24-25 Don’t hang out with angry people; don’t keep company with hotheads. Bad temper is contagious — don’t get infected. [A man is known by the company he keeps. Friends are one of the largest influences of our behavior.]

TRUTH 3
26-27 Don’t gamble on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, hocking your house against a lucky chance.The time will come when you have to pay up; you’ll be left with nothing but the shirt on your back. [This is why we don’t borrow money against expected income. You never know when something will happen and you will lose it all. Pay cash. Debt is no friend.]

TRUTH 4
28 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines staked out long ago by your ancestors. [In other words, don’t cheat. Don’t try to get away with something your ancestors saw as important enough to give you boundaries.]

TRUTH 5
29 Observe people who are good at their work— skilled workers are always in demand and admired; they don’t take a backseat to anyone. [Pay attention to people who are good at what they do – watch their work ethic. Learn all you can from them. Soak it up! And then go put it into practice!]

TRUTH 6
23: 1-3 When you go out to dinner with an influential person, mind your manners: Don’t gobble your food, don’t talk with your mouth full. And don’t stuff yourself; bridle your appetite. [Common sense — use good manners and etiquette while in the presence of a person you respect or someone in a position of influence.]

TRUTH 7
4-5 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself! Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder. [The lottery is not a blessing. Money is never certain, it can go away so fast. The point is to not strive for money… it is so temporal. Strive for the eternal rewards.]

TRUTH 8
6-8 Don’t accept a meal from a tightwad; don’t expect anything special. He’ll be as stingy with you as he is with himself; he’ll say, “Eat! Drink!” but won’t mean a word of it. His miserly serving will turn your stomach when you realize the meal’s a sham. [If a person is stingy with dinner, he is going to be stingy in many other areas. Be wise.]

TRUTH 9
9 Don’t bother talking sense to fools; they’ll only poke fun at your words.

TRUTH 10
10-11 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines or cheat orphans out of their property, For they have a powerful Advocate who will go to bat for them. [He said this twice now. I think it might be important. Don’t cheat. Ever.]

TRUTH 11
12 Give yourselves to disciplined instruction; open your ears to tested knowledge. [Oh this one is a tough one… but so important. Pay attention to knowledge that is proven and tried and tested. And be disciplined in looking for instruction – give yourself to it.]

TRUTH 12
13-14 Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones; a spanking won’t kill them. A good spanking, in fact, might save them from something worse than death. [My parents believed in this one. It is so true. I know it is not popular today, but you can just take it up with God’s Word. Obviously it was put in there for a reason!]

TRUTH 13
15-16 Dear child, if you become wise, I’ll be one happy parent. My heart will dance and sing to the tuneful truth you’ll speak. [Every parent’s desire…that their children will walk in wisdom.]

TRUTH 14
17-18 Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels; soak yourself in the Fear-of-God That’s where your future lies. Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing. [The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.]

TRUTH 15
19-21 Oh listen, dear child—become wise; point your life in the right direction.Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags. [Hedonism – self-pleasuring – will only result in obesity, drunkenness, and poverty … among other things. There is a better direction for your life… giving to others is a good place to start!]

TRUTH 16
22-25 Listen with respect to the father who raised you. And when your mother grows old, don’t neglect her. Buy truth — don’t sell it for love or money; buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight. Parents rejoice when their children turn out well; wise children become proud parents. So make your father happy! Make your mother proud! [This goes along with the command to honor your father and mother, and the reward — with promise — is a long life!]

TRUTH 17
26-28 Dear child, I want your full attention;  please do what I show you. A whore is a bottomless pit; a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast. She’ll take you for all you’ve got; she’s worse than a pack of thieves. [Advice for relationships, guys … A woman who sleeps around will get you in trouble. Run away!]

TRUTH 18
29-35 Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? It’s those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business. Don’t judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with — the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor? “They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt; they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing. When I’m sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!” [Alcoholism is a sad disease. Don’t start down that road.]

TRUTH 19
24:1-2 Don’t envy bad people; don’t even want to be around them. All they think about is causing a disturbance;  all they talk about is making trouble.

TRUTH 20
3-4 It takes wisdom to build a house, and understanding to set it on a firm foundation; It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms with fine furniture and beautiful draperies. [The wise man builds his house on the rock. When the storm comes, the house stands. Architecture is an amazing process and a house that is built in harmony with its environment reflects the beauty of creation but requires much planning and thought.]

TRUTH 21
5-6 It’s better to be wise than strong; intelligence outranks muscle any day. Strategic planning is the key to warfare; to win, you need a lot of good counsel.

TRUTH 22
7 Wise conversation is way over the head of fools; in a serious discussion they haven’t a clue. [The best way to learn how to have good discussions is to be around people who are good at it. See Truth 5.]

TRUTH 23
8-9 The person who’s always cooking up some evil soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues. Fools incubate sin; cynics desecrate beauty. [People who are always messing around coming up with plots to vandalize, steal and hurt others are just tools of the enemy.]

TRUTH 24
10 If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. [This is why every day, I look at the wall in my office where it says, Keep Calm and Carry On. No freaking out necessary. My King is in control.] 

TRUTH 25
11-12 Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know — Someone not impressed with weak excuses. [What I sow, I will reap. Bullying should not be tolerated. It is our business. Step up and step in.]

TRUTH 26
13-14 Eat honey, dear child — it’s good for you — and delicacies that melt in your mouth. Likewise knowledge, and wisdom for your soul — Get that and your future’s secured, your hope is on solid rock. [Honey is good for you. I wish I liked it more. But I do like wisdom and knowledge. I want my house built on the ROCK.]

TRUTH 27
15-16 Don’t interfere with good people’s lives; don’t try to get the best of them. No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces. [That’s because a righteous man may fall but he will get back up and keep going. “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down!”]

TRUTH 28
17-18 Don’t laugh when your enemy falls; don’t crow over his collapse. God might see, and become very provoked, and then take pity on his plight. [It is easy to laugh when someone finally “gets what’s coming to them” but God says don’t do it.]

TRUTH 29
19-20 Don’t bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. Those people have no future at all; they’re headed down a dead-end street. [They have empty lives, they just seem more fulfilled sometimes… but it is all hollow and meaningless compared to a life filled with the TRUTH of God’s love.]

TRUTH 30
21-22 Fear God, dear child — respect your leaders; don’t be defiant or mutinous. Without warning your life can turn upside down, and who knows how or when it might happen? [Romans 13 says to obey those in authority, and even though that often goes against our independent spirit, we have to do it.]