When My Wisdom Becomes a Liability
By Jennifer Slattery
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
After a decade of poor decisions, many that have landed me in a heap of trouble, one would think I’ve learned. No matter how smart, educated, or experienced I believe I am, my reasoning will always be shortsighted at best if not downright deceived.
About twelve years ago, my husband took a position with a new company, so we handed our house keys to our realtor, packed our things, and traveled across the country. Certain, in our own wisdom, that abundant blessings were to follow, we ignored God’s warnings—one that, had we heeded, would’ve saved us a lot of stress and $35,000.
It’d been a long and exhausting week spent alternating between a realtor’s car and one property after another. By six o’clock on the day of our poor decision, I was done. I was hungry, grumpy, had to pee, and quite frankly, could care less if we purchased a home with beige or tan carpet. So when we walked into a house that appeared to have everything we wanted, though at the top of our budget, it seemed completely logical to make an offer.
Despite the ping to my spirit, a lack of peace I promptly rationalized away.
I deeply regretted that action less than six months later when we were forced to sell that same home at a nearly $40,000 loss. In the moment of decision, my “understanding” appeared so rational. My husband had a great job and we had the funds.
What we didn’t have, however, was a vision of the future. Only God had that. Had we taken the time to seek out His wisdom and trust in His guidance, even when it didn’t seem to make sense, we would’ve saved ourselves a great deal of money and heartache.
Only God knows what lies ahead, and He longs to guide us toward His very best, if we’d take the time to listen and obey.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, available for free (in ebook form) from Wholly Loved Ministries. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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