Too Smart for My Own Good...

I have a confession to make: Growing up I thought I was adopted.  Shhhh...don't tell anyone!

 

Somehow, I got to be the "smart" one in the family.  School came easily to me.  I had excellent retention skills, so pretty much anything I heard in a classroom lecture I could regurgitate on a test and score 100% every time.  I had to work a little harder when it came to being tested on textbook understanding, but I still pulled it off and sailed through elementary, jr. high & high school with mostly As & Bs.  Other than Geometry, I received a "C" in Civics my senior year in high school.  By the time I was a senior, I was only going to school 1/2 days and had senioritis big time (you know, short-timers syndrome).

 

I had a huge pride problem when I was a teenager.  Intellectual understanding came easily to me.  You only had to tell me once and I "got it."  I was a quick learner, efficient and organized.  My family, on the other hand, had not excelled educationally.  I had that "know it all" disease and didn't think too highly of my family nor their ability to problem solve, etc.  I was quite foolish and full of myself.

 

My dad was (and still is) great with tools, wood-working, construction projects, etc.  My mom was a brilliant cook.  She was the pre-school cook for 10 years.  She excelled at shopping, planning and organizing nutritious (why dose that spelling look so weird?) menus for the preschool children.  My sister was (and still is) a talented artist.  She is also incredible with animals.  In fact, she is a licensed dog breeder in Colorado.

 

In my youth, these intelligent qualities and life experiences of my family were lost on me.  I felt superior and was pretty sure I was adopted.  How could someone as brilliant as me come from such a common family?

 

Dosen't that just make you want to slap me?  I've talked a lot with my dad in recent weeks about "way back then."  My dad relayed that he and my mom were just happy I was doing so well in school and were proud of me.  They'd hoped I'd go to college (which I did), keep the Lord first in my life (which I eventually did) and find a way to serve in the local New Testament church (which I eventually did).

 

For all my smartness, I lacked wisdom.  I reasoned because I knew so much I had no need for advice from my family and after I turned 16, pretty much leaned on my own understanding of things.  Because of my pride and false sense of intelligence, I missed out on the wisdom my family could instruct me with.  I figured they had NO CLUE as to who I really was and could not instruct me on the guys I dated, the friends I hung out with nor the experiences I experimented with.  Because I lacked wisdom, I was unable to protect myself from the pitfalls of my own choices.

 

Biblical wisdom comes from knowing God and following Him.  Real wisdom is humble and eager to learn from the richness of others' experiences.  Hmmmm.....Read on.

 

PlanetWisdom.com Devotionals

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Wisdom Shows Posted: 29 Jun 2009 08:44 PM PDT "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." (James 3:13) Are you a wise person? According to James, if I knew you I wouldn't have to ask that question. Having a high wisdom quotient (WQ?) isn't something that comes from filling in the right ovals on a multiple choice test. Wisdom shows. Wisdom stands out in our world in the same way that having purple hair or being eight feet tall stands out. What we're going to see in this week's devo's is that living wisely -- with the "wisdom of heaven" -- is not the norm in this zip code. It's weird, even. So if you're a wise person, people will notice. They'll see you living a good life. They'll see you making choices like a humble person, like someone who knows the story isn't about him. Come back tomorrow to see what wisdom ain't. Think: If "wisdom is as wisdom does," do you think many people would describe you as a wise person? Do you know any smart people who are not very wise? How about the reverse of that -- people who live wisely without being very "book smart"? Pray: Ask God to help you to be a wise and understanding person so that it becomes obvious by your good life and deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Do: Make a quick list of the 5 wisest-living people you know. Visit PlanetWisdom.com for more great resources!