| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading” Our Bible verse for today: “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.” Proverbs 18:15 (NIV) Our thought for today: “Seek knowledge” I’ve mentioned in a previous devotional that one of my favorite motivational books is “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. It’s based upon seven resolutions a person can make that will help to guide them to building a successful life. The second resolution is “I will seek wisdom”. A condensed summary of the resolution reads, “Wisdom waits to be gathered. I will seek her out. My reading, listening, and choice of association will serve to make me wise. Wisdom is a gift to the diligent.” That’s essentially what Solomon teaches in Proverbs 18:15 and it’s a theme that’s developed and written about by many Christian writers. In his whimsically titled book, “Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men” Stephen Mansfield includes an entire chapter on the importance of being a lifelong learner, and it builds on the subject of yesterday’s devotional about self-education. In that chapter Mansfield writes, “The truth is most great men in history have become great because they aggressively pursued knowledge. They overcame gaps in their early education. They took responsibility for their education and did not wait for knowledge to come to them.” Mansfield tells us that Winston Churchill was such a ravenous reader that one later biographer wrote that “he became his own university”. Abraham Lincoln was so enflamed with a hunger for knowledge that he read every book he could buy or borrow, he enlisted tutors, he followed lecturers from town to town, and he spent many late nights studying a wide range of subjects. Benjamin Franklin taught himself five languages. Thomas Jefferson taught himself seven languages. Harry Truman was a voracious reader on many subjects and he was our only U.S. President who did not have a college degree. He was a successful businessman, a county judge, a US senator, the vice-president of the United States, and the President of the United States. He presided over the end of WWII; the Korean War; the dawn of the atomic age; the founding of the United Nations; the birth of the nation of Israel; and much more – all with only a high school education followed by all that he learned on his own. The love and pursuit of knowledge is a common factor among those who accomplish significant things in life. That’s what Solomon was teaching in Proverbs 18:15 and we see the truth of it in the lives of millions upon millions of men and women who love knowledge and who make the effort to seek it out. I encourage you to be one of them. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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