Recognizing Wisdom--by Linden Malki

The world has always had those who recognize wisdom, and those who don't. It started with the very beginning; the first advice we have on record involves a tree, a man, and God. Wisdom often includes warnings: this one did. One problem is that not every source of advise is wise, and one reason is that advice can be biased in favor of only one side of the conversation. Eve--and Adam--made an unwise choice, and we are all faced with the problem of recognizing wisdom and folly when it presents itself to us.

The primary source of wisdom is God; there are occasions where He does speak directly to people. Not everyone believes or recognizes this, but there are records and descriptions that, to the best of our knowledge, indicate that it has happened, and the results are consistent with the message. For example, Abraham and Moses lives and legacies are consistent with their experiences of God's communication with them.

Another source of wisdom is information taught by people who have a track record of giving good advice.  One thing that goes along with this is recognition of bad advice when it is offered.  This usually requires some previous information; your own experience or that of others, that you can compare with new the information, and judge whether it is confirmed by your own experience or sources you trust, or not. We are flooded with information, and need to know how to evaluate it; recognizing that what we hear varies widely in truth or not.

The whole question of wisdom is related to trust: how do we know who and what to trust? Do we know how to cross-reference information, to learn to observe the world around us to see how it works, and think logically? Do we know how to look ahead and estimate the results of things we are asked to do or believe? Do we know how to see things not just black/white, but to know the conditions when they might actually be different?  For example, I grew up in snow country, and had to learn how do deal with varying road conditions. When we lived up in Devore, I was driving home one night and when I turned onto a road going toward the mountain, it was covered in snow. I was interested to see that my brain noticeably and automatically clicked onto "snow", and knew how to change my driving procedure. We need to be aware of what we know, what we think, how to recognize reality, and to know that we don't know everything--but we do know Who does!









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