Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it.” Proverbs 8:33 CSB
A few years back, my husband and I bought a cheap metal shed. We wondered why it was such a good price. As soon as we started putting it together, we quickly realized why: it had a myriad of parts to it which required hours and hours of work to put it together. In fact, we couldn’t do it ourselves, we had to have friends come and help us.
We realized quickly as we began the project, we couldn’t do it without the instructions. We had to follow them step by step in order to put the shed together correctly. I had all of the pieces set out in order of the steps, trying to make the process easier. It was a thankless job, that required much patience and perseverance. Even with help it took two days to complete.
What if we had listened to instruction? What if we had asked people who had experience with sheds for their input before we bought the cheapest one? We would of been wiser. Maybe we would have spent a little more money, but it would have been worth it for the time and energy it saved us. But we didn’t do that, we ignored instruction and did it the hard way. We weren’t wise.
The book of Proverbs is an instruction manual for us. There are so many valuable insights into living life, some of which we’ve already talked about. Why not read the instruction manual before you try to do it alone? Why not become wiser in your living, allowing you to avoid some potential danger zones? Even if it helps you avoid just one heart ache, isn’t it worth it?