Mind Meld of A Different Kind

PROVERBS 9:7-9

Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.
Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
So don’t bother correcting mockers;
they will only hate you.
But correct the wise,
and they will love you.
Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.

Avoiding unnecessary poverty

Sad, but true. “The rich get richer and the poor, poorer.”

Mockers think they know it all. So they forever mock the choices others make since those choices are obviously stupid. Driven by the need to display their vast knowledge by correcting everyone else, these folk only reveal how lacking they are. They possess an impoverished store of knowledge. They ignore the truism, “It’s better to keep silent and keep people guessing how much you know that to open your mouth and erase all doubt.”

Mockers often allow insecurity or arrogance to lock them in mental poverty. Most people, I think, struggle with one or both of these maladies. Those who overcome them, become teachable and slowly fill their mental coffers with wisdom and learning. Those who do not, remain forever unable to receive rebuke or correction, and forever impoverished.

Correction seldom feels good for me. And rebuke never goes down well. My own struggles with insecurity and arrogance guarantee discomfort. But I am determined to wisely listen to disquieting words. I want to “be even wiser” and to “learn even more”. While I don’t have to possess material wealth, I very much want heart and mind wealth.

I know people who strike back when offered even the gentlest and most tactfully offered correction. God forbid that I ever be that kind of impoverished person.

Father, you correct your children because you love them. I will accept your expressions of love. Use wise authors, mentors, leaders, friends to speak truth into my life. Help me to keep an open ear and a wide open heart. May the wisdom you have allowed me to gather during the first half of my life only multiply in the second! - Mike Leamon

(Dan's on vacation to warm weather and beaches! And he didn't take Mike with him. Now that was truly wisdom. Dan will be back blogging in about a week.)