Lesson Unlearned

“And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!” (Pr 5:12-13 AV)

Let’s be honest, we all have these moments.  Pride is the cause.  We refer to ourselves as boneheaded for doing something we know is wrong, but we do it anyway.  Specially when we have been taught otherwise.  For some reason, we think we are smarter than those who have gone on before.  Imagine how better off our world would be if we didn’t have to learn the same lessons over and again.  Imagine if the human race only had to learn a particular lesson once.  If the following generation would heed the warning and not do that which their forefathers did, then we would be that much further down the road to wisdom.

Every parent knows there were choices they made which they hope their children will never make.  Some choices indeed are never repeated.  Others, however, no matter how much instruction and warning is given, fail to hit the heart.  This is a parent’s frustration.  When they see their child go down the same road they went down knowing where it will end and unable to stop it.  Take, for instance, a fella who dated as a young man.  Because he was lost, he applied the world’s concept of dating and marriage.  This led to several failed attempts and a few immoral choices.  Having accepted Christ and meeting the love of his life, he has regrets over all those failed relationships that often are more common than successful marriages when the world’s philosophy is employed.  Now, he sees his adult children going down that same road.  He has tried to explain the Biblical concept of courtship but to no avail.  He has reminded his son or daughter that more times than not, these arrangements do not end well.  Low and behold, history repeats itself.  We all do this.  An older man may tell us that we are making the same mistakes with our children that he did.  We ignore the observation.  A more experienced driver tells us that there is a better way to our destination.  We are late because we turn a deaf ear.  A patient warns us of our bad eating habits, but we cannot say ‘no’ to our favorite fare, only to find ourselves visiting the doctor for the same issues.

Wisdom only works if we will humble ourselves, listen, and heed the life experience of those who have gone before.  Pride is the greatest enemy here.  We do not listen to our teachers because we think we can do it.  Laws are absolute and will not bend to our pride just because we have a higher evaluation of ourselves than is prudent.