Wisdom
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Proverbs 9 v.10
Although related to education and knowledge, wisdom differs from cleverness. The Bible teaches that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Wisdom is insight into the way life works: a proper understanding of the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions and an awareness of the true value of things. It is rooted in proper reverence for God who is the source of all life and all values. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness, which is a wrong understanding of life. Jesus tells the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12 v 13-21). Although this parable may seem to be mainly about greed and obsession with money, at a deeper level it is about putting our trust or faith in the wrong things. The fool thinks that the aim of life is to ‘be happy’ and he thinks that you can gain happiness by doing what you want and be gaining more and more possessions. The wise person recognizes their own limitations, trusts in God and understands that there is more to life than may be seen on the surface. At All Saints whilst we teach knowledge we also guide the children towards knowing how to make informed, wise choices and decisions. To think about what the wise thing to do or say may be and to develop a deeper understanding of life.
