#Mywordfortoday is practical #wisdom
But then again, the universe is conniving to help me arrange stuff that I would write about.
Yesterday, our #dailywritingchallenge theme was on perseverance, and the key point I strove to make in my piece was that "Brilliance or Talent" is never enough.
Today, I am writing on wisdom and from my perspective on applying wisdom, brilliance or intelligence or intellect is also not enough.
You can be intelligent and consistently make unwise decisions.
So what is wisdom? I can not even deign to answer this because I do not consider myself an authority on the subject.
However the Bible from where I will be drawing heavily from describes wisdom as "being the principal thing", it goes further to say " wisdom is profitable to direct".
This for me means that in making decisions in life, it is important to do by applying wisdom.
How does one apply wisdom? There is a plethora of books, videos and talks about this, but my takeaway from all of it is that to apply wisdom, you must understand wisdom in the context of your application.
Stay with me 😀 Growing up in South-Western Nigeria, we had different "wisdom" proverbs to teach us everything from life to relationships to careers. Our movies are usually didactic, seeking to teach us the art of wisdom.
In speaking, they would enjoin us to put our thoughts into what we say because spoken words are like an egg, once it is broken, it cannot be put together again.
But is wisdom a purely moral concept? In my opinion, No, wisdom speaks to the practicality of things, can I do a sex video, absolutely, should I do a sex video, probably not.
Wisdom is also situational, let me use the year 2000 movie "Rules of Engagement" that featured Samuel L. Jackson.
In that movie, he had shot in the head, the radioman for the Vietnamese side. The Radioman was to be considered a POW. He shot him because, in his wisdom, that was one of the ways by which he (Jackson) could save the lives of his men.
On trial, his opponent on the other side said were he in Jackson's shoes, he would do the same. (I know this example might raise brows) but it buttresses the fact that wisdom sometimes may be considered, well immoral.
Is wisdom knowledge, absolutely not, if it were, we would not have a lot of knowledgeable people make such patently unwise decisions.....the Enron debacle comes to mind.
Is it possible to be wise at all times...LOL No. If it is impossible to right all the time, then you cannot be wise all the time.
Let's nip into the Bible real quick. King Solomon asked and was blessed with Wisdom. He then married so many women from different backgrounds that he lost his godly ways and began to practice idolatry, I mean this was a man who specifically asked for and received wisdom.
As I said at the beginning of this writeup, I am not qualified to write about wisdom, I do know that in acquiring some modicum of wisdom, we must remain open-minded, we must also endeavour not to hold too much to our opinions or ideas, it is unwise in the face of superior argument to hold on to your POV because of ego.
Life is a teacher, and learn we must if we want to be able to apply wisdom.
Remember wisdom is the principal thing.
Bibire Omotoyosi Salihu
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