Meeting of wisdom

Proverbs tells us this: "A wise child brings joy to a father; a foolish child brings grief to a mother."

I'm doubly blessed. Today is Shanna Rose Turner Rubio's 30th birthday, the day before Mother's Day. She is a blessing in so many ways. She is indeed wise; so much so that she is the one who we would go to if the financial house of cards we life in were to blow apart. She brings joy to me in ways beyond counting because she indeed is wise in her choices and wise in her actions. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, a day set aside to count the blessings of good mothers, which Mary certainly is.

But Shanna is not impervious to mistakes. If she would allow God's voice to bring her into His house ... well, she would show how wise she truly is. So far...not so much.

Therein lies the problem. Thirty years of  "wise" living and she does not know God well enough. Her children do not know the Lord. They don't know when to pray, how to pray, where to pray. I pray constantly that she would let the Lord change her. That Jesus would be first in her life. That the Holy Spirit would be her first choice among the many choices she has each day.

When tragedy strikes, and it certainly has around her, she knows to call me and start prayer chains to working. For that I give thanks.

But when things are going well, she doesn't know to give thanks for the good times as well as strengthening the family for those moments when tragedy will come calling again, or at least she doesn't seem to do that.

Just a chapter ahead of that proverb that began this blog, it says, "instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. If you become wise, you will be he the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer."

Shanna is a wise, still very young lady at 30. But her wisdom will come to naught if she doesn't use it to find the savior, find the Lord, find the one who will bring her to righteousness. If the only time you take the "Jesus card" out of your pocket is at the worst of times when you can turn no where else, you've missed what it means to have a relationship with Him.

All the things she does right are cancelled by the one thing she does wrong ... Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. I believe she believes that. But believing it and living it out, through regular church visits, through regular Bible studies, through regular visitations with the Lord Jesus, are different things.

Of but that Shanna would show her belief through a "regular" relationship with God through his Son, Jesus. What a wise thing that would be.