Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wisdom

Before going into my post I must say:
Axios, to Metropolitan Jonah! I'm so happy at this election. See what James says and he posted a video here.

WISDOM

A couple months ago I decided that I needed to begin to pray for wisdom in my vocation as a mother and wife. I prayed that God would give me wisdom in knowing how to raise my children and to run my household. I studied Proverbs 31 to the best of my ability and prayed God would give me wisdom to become the woman he wanted me to be. So I started reading the "wisdom books" ( Proverbs, Wisdom of Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon). I came across this first:

Wisdom of Sirach 1:9-12

The fear of the Lord is glory and boasting,
And gladness and a crown of rejoicing.
The fear of the Lord will cheer the heart
And will give gladness, joy and long life.
For those who fear the Lord, it shall be well to the utmost,
And on the day of his death, he will be blessed.
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord,
And she was joined with the faithful in the womb.


"gladness", "crown of rejoicing", "joy" These were things that I really wanted in my life but if "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord" what really is the "fear of the Lord".
I found it in many places in scripture....

Psalm 111:10 (sep:110:10)
The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

If I wanted wisdom I needed to "fear the Lord". What does it truly mean to fear the Lord?
What does that look like?

I want to answer these questions and will continue to search scripture and also read the Church Fathers.
I found a page of 27 quotes from Fathers of the Church on "Fear of God",
And there are 19 quotes on "wisdom".
And I am sure scripture is full of reference to these.

More later.

2 comments:

Monica said...

Ooooh... thank you for sharing. I'm sure this is something we all need and wish and pray for.

Martha said...

That's great news!