JUDGMENT AND KNOWLEDGE

Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.  Psalm 119:66

An educated person can be full of knowledge but lack good judgment.  Street smart and book smart are not one in the same.  What if I excel in one but not the other?  Can God teach me what I lack?  Yes.

I was the Salutatorian of my high school class yet I was the most naïve of young girls.  (And I thought I was stupid as well but that’s the subject of another devotional.)  Sheltered in a Christian home, untrained by adults, I was unprepared to navigate the world, starting in school.  I struggled to identify the many faces of evil.  If someone declared themselves trustworthy, I took them at their word.  When evil entered the church and played out the devil’s schemes, I was a sitting duck.  Three more decades would pass before God would train me with spiritual discernment.

Anyone in their 40’s and 50’s has lived enough life to have been hurt deeply by people.  We know what it’s liked to be deceived, to be tricked, to be gullible and then feel ashamed for having trusted so easily.  Such events plague the Christian and non-Christian alike.  But what distinguishes us from unbelievers (hopefully) is that we don’t thrive on revenge.  We lack cynicism.  We don’t wear a hard, crust-like exterior that covers a heart that has sworn never to trust again.  How is that possible?  Because the Spirit of God is our teacher.

God is still teaching me good judgment.  It’s not too late.  In the sovereign storyline of my life, I’m learning these right on time.  He’s teaching me to discern evil and good.  I’m learning who to trust and who requires reserve.  While sitting at His feet, He restores the places where my lack of judgment has damaged my soul.

“Failure is the best teacher”, Abraham Lincoln is to have said.  While failure can be instructive, without God it can also harden hearts.  God is the best teacher.  Knowledge from His lips is enjoyable.  Judgment is life-saving.

Your teaching has saved me from many pits.  Thank you Father for being such a perfect parent, patiently teaching me until I learn your ways well.  Amen