Decisions and The Way of Wisdom or Foolishness

Author: Pastor Steve Duffy

The last two Sunday nights about 20 high school students used the book of Proverbs to glean helpful wisdom for decision making that could apply to simple daily decisions or even more complex and life impacting decisions. This was significant, why?

To start, we were reminded that a Proverb is not a promise, but a general truth (a probability) where the best chances of that Proverb being fulfilled are by doing what it says. That applies to both the path of wisdom or foolishness, life or death, etc. The best chance to be wise is to do what the Proverbs related to wisdom say. However, that is not a guarantee as we might start out well walking in the Spirit, but the flesh, the world, and Satan will oppose the way of wisdom and we very well may slip toward opposing the action of the Proverb. Same is true for foolishness, the best chance to be foolish is to do what the Proverbs related to foolishness say. However, by the Spirit we can say ‘no’ to the path of foolishness and walk in the way of Christ to pursue holiness!

So, of first significance is that the decision making principles came from God’s word, so we can trust that these are true and important to consider in decision making.

Next, the principles came from the students' collective efforts to glean these wise principles from God’s word and formulate them into a decision making help that is timeless and practical. The leaders helped in this too 🙂 It was a lively conversation both nights and very fun too! Interestingly enough what we ended up with is close to what you might find in several decision making helps from various sources. The following is a visual of where we landed:

The previous is a simplistic yet helpful visual of putting the decision making pieces together into something useful/practical. We noted that the items in the middle (prayer, the Bible, convictions, the Spirit) are always at work and necessary during the whole process. Students noted that some of these steps don’t happen in a nice sequence, some are happening in parallel and some require back and forth between steps before the final decision and moving forward with that decision. Also, some decisions require an evaluation (or check in) after moving ahead that might require another round of the decision making process to make adjustments or change course all together. This really was a lot of fun to hear from them through this!

Last, what we ended up with was then “tested” through actual examples that were in front of two students. They had an important decision in front of them to make. Two students are in a season of life where they will start receiving income from a job and this presents an important decision in front of them, “what should I do with all this money that will be coming to me soon?”. What a great question to ask and a great application to use the wisdom of God to answer that question! So what we did for these two students was to pair up to come up with options which in effect was soliciting “input from others”, the whole group! What also came with the discussions in pairs were some points about circumstances such as the fact that they had limited income, and that they had expenses and savings goals. And of course, pros/cons found their way in there naturally too without having to go as far as putting all options side by side and going through a pros/cons exercise. The options shared were endless to say the least (some wise and some foolish!), with the wise themes of giving, savings, expenses, and spending emerging in various forms. I’d expect this, as practical Biblical financial guidance from various sources promote similar categories. This gave the two students, and all of us really, a good evaluation of how we are stewarding our finances and what decisions we might make to align to God’s wisdom from Proverbs.

The end goal of all this: students engaging in God’s word for truth and practical guidance that intersects their lives today in their decision making. It was a joy to do this with them. How about for you? How might you use Proverbs as an investment of wisdom into the lives of young people, especially around decision making? As with the definition/purpose of a Proverb, the best chance you have to direct them in the way of the wise is using God’s word and doing what it says in both your instruction and your life example. So have at it with God’s provision noted (prayer, Bible, the Spirit, one another) and do so using creative exercises and discussions together, journeying together in the process of decision making, to the glory of God!

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:7

As you reflect back on this past week, or month, it doesn’t take too long before you’re reminded that many people in your spheres of influence are facing trials. Many times these are situations that are over their head and the circumstances surrounding them are often complex. Life is hard and at the same time our God is always good and faithful though it all. When life gets hard, “counseling” is often mentioned as a default. How do we guide people to the next best step when life gets hard?

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