Daily Devotion - Thursday, January 28

The Wise and Mature

“Listen to advice and accept instruction,
and in the end you will be wise.”
--Proverbs 19: 20

Most of the stories gathered from my years of ministry come from the lips of wise people, mature people who have found value in listening to advice and accepting instructions. While there are plenty of stories from both young and old alike, it seems the statements of the wise and mature grow more valuable with every passing day. Here is a touching prayer by Robert Terry Weston:

“Beautiful are the youth
Whose rich emotions flash and burn
Whose lithe bodies filled with energy and grace,
Sway in their happy dance of life;
And beautiful likewise are the mature
Who have learned compassion and patience, charity and wisdom,
Though they be rarer far than beautiful youth.

“But most beautiful and most rare is a gracious old age
Which has drawn from life the skill to takes its varied strands:
The harsh advance of age, the pang of grief,
The passing of dear friends, the loss of strength,
And with fresh insight weave them in a rich and gracious pattern all its own.

“This is the greatest skill of all,
To take the bitter with the sweet and make it beautiful,
To take the whole of life in all its moods,
Its strengths and weaknesses
And of the whole make one great and celestial harmony.”

A prayer for today: Lord, help me to capture what you are trying to teach me. Amen.

--Ben Keckler
01.28.10