Tag Archives: solomon

Life Lessons, Solomons Wisdom

Is PERFECTION Your ENEMY?

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Wouldn’t it be great if whatever we desired to achieve we could do perfectly?

It’s a nice thought, but unfortunately it’s rarely our reality. Yet, all too often we hold ourselves to unrealistic expectations. Tell me if this sounds like you — how many times have you said, “if I can’t do it perfectly, then I’m not going to do it at all.” I will admit that I’ve been guilty of this more times than I can count and I’ll bet that you have been too.

HOWEVER there’s a big problem with perfection – it’s possible that your desire for perfection is holding you back from accomplishing your goals and achieving some truly great things in life.

perfection

King Solomon recognized the dangers of trying to be perfect and/or to wait for external events to be ‘just right.’ Consider the following words of wisdom…

(Eccl 11:3-4) “If clouds are full of water, they pour rain…Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.” (Don’t wait for things to be perfect, just get started and make the best of it).

(Prov 22:13) “The sluggard says there is a lion outside! or I will be murdered in the streets!” (You can always come up with an excuse, how about instead coming up with a reason to get moving?).

(Prov 14:23) “Hard work leads to profit, but mere talk only to poverty.” (Work brings results, talking doesn’t pay the bills).

(Eccl 5:7) “Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. therefore stand in awe of ACTION.” (You’ll never turn your dreams into a reality if you don’t take action).

What it is you want to achieve, don’t wait – DO SOMETHING to move forward today. The longer you wait the get started on your dreams, the farther away they will become – until eventually they may just fade away forever. But that doesn’t have to be you – because you have the power to do anything you set your mind to… all you have to do is GET STARTED.

Fear-of-FailureFor more on this topic, be sure to read…

Fail Your Way to Success, where you’ll read about specific examples of famous people like Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison, and may more who didn’t let perfection stop them from being great.

 

Life Lessons, Solomons Wisdom

The Purpose of Proverbs – To Help YOU Make the World a Better Place

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The Book of Proverbs in The Bible is regarded by many to be one of the greatest wellsprings of practical knowledge ever collected by humanity. Many people (myself included) have used Proverbs to make their lives better by using the wisdom within the books. But do you know WHY Solomon wrote Proverbs in the first place?

Actually the answer to this is provided by the king himself right at the beginning of the book. Notice Prov 1:2-4, where Solomon explains that the book is “for attaining wisdom and discipline, for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young…” 

worldhands

That’s a pretty clear message that Solomon was not just trying to collect a book of a bunch of witty sayings, but instead had a more powerful, world-changing vision in mind. Personally I believe that we should keep this quote in mind while we read through Proverbs because these are worthy goals to remain aware of. After all, not only do we want to acquire wisdom and understanding and use this knowledge to live a disciplined and prudent life for ourselves and our own benefit, but imagine what can happen when we follow the rest of the directions — we can ALSO make the world a better place by DOING what is good and by GIVING knowledge to others (teaching the simple to be make better choices, sharing wisdom/guidance with the younger generation).

As you can see, when we truly understanding wisdom realize that using wisdom requires doing ALL of these things and when we do that, everybody wins.

How will YOU use your wisdom to help someone today?

 

Life Lessons, Solomons Wisdom

Where do you find Wisdom?

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Wisdom – everybody wants it, because it can give you an advantage in life, yet few know where to find it. That’s a problem for most – but it doesn’t have to be a problem for you any longer.

Why? Because the answer is simple – Wisdom is everywhere…if you only LISTEN.

WisdomPhone

It may sound crazy and overly simplified and perhaps if it was just Michael telling you this you might well dismiss the notion, but these are not my words, they are the words of King Solomon – the wisest man who ever lived. The concept of simplifying the process of finding wisdom was so important to Solomon that he wrote not one but TWO books on the subject – Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Both of these biblical books are filled with Solomon’s thoughts on the topic. For today’s lesson I’m going to pick out just a few of his quotes.

  1. LISTENING: “Listen and add to your learning” (This is a quote from Prov 1:5, but the concept of ‘listening” was so critical that Solomon repeated this direction in Prov 1:9, P4:1, P5:1, and P8:33)
  2. WHERE IS WISDOM? “Wisdom calls aloud in the streets, she raises her voice in the public square.” (Everywhere you look you can learn something, everyone you meet can teach you something, if you are willing to listen). For similar quotes check out Prov 8:1-11 and Prov 9:3-6. In addition, notice that Wisdom ‘dwells with prudence’ (Prov 8:12) and ‘walks in the way of righteousness’ (Prov 8:20) so if the more you model these behaviors in your life the most you’ll be exposed to sources of valuable knowledge.  If you are wondering where does Wisdom come from — Solomon answered this for us as well (Prov 2:6) “The Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come understanding.”  
  3. ADVICE: “Wisdom is found by those who take advice” (Prov 13:10). Despite being considered the wisest man of his day, Solomon was a big proponent of taking advice. In addition to this quote, he talked about advice in Prov 11:14, Prov 12:15, Prov 13:1, Prov 15:31, and Prov 13:20 where he said “He who WALKS WITH THE WISE grows wise” (this speaks to the power of finding a mentor). But the best quote of all on the power of advice may be this (Prov 19:20) “listen to advice and accept instruction and in the end you will be wise” – that’s something all of us can do!
  4. PARENTS: “Keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever, fasten them to your neck. When you walk they will guide you, when you sleep they will watch over you; when you awake they will speak to you” (Prov 6:20-22). Solomon wrote often about the wisdom available right in your own house from your parents – if you will simply listen, learn, and remember it. Proverbs is filled with similar quotes – how many can you find?
  5. FOCUS: “a discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth” (Prov 17:24). Once you find wisdom, it’s important to maintain a focus on that teaching, apply what you learned, AND continue to try to get more of it. As Solomon noted in Prov 2:2-5 “Turn your ear to wisdom…call out for insight…cry aloud for understanding…look for wisdom as for silver, search for it as for hidden treasure…and find the knowledge of God.” And just when you think you might know it all, remember this warning from Prov 26:12 “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? there is more hope for a fool than for him.”

Never stop learning.

The good news is that there is more wisdom in the world than you will ever know so you’ll never run out. Best of all, Wisdom is waiting for you everywhere — if you only take the time to listen!