Chapter 13

Proverbs 13 (Cheryl)

"Every prudent man deals with knowledge, but a fool exposes and flaunts his folly." Proverbs 13:16

Prudent can be a positive or a negative thing, but in Proverbs it is a positive. It is planning, careful, sensible, wise, acting in good judgment and knowledgeable.

When thinking about all those words, I think of the word balance. Balancing, or juggling, is not an easy thing to do now a days. Our lives are filled with so many things we "Have to do" or "Have to get done." Places we "Have to be," or "People we have to see or talk with." That made me wonder how prudent or balanced my life was.

I am a mom and so my mind went to the juggling that moms have to do on a day to day basis. We juggle many things and some of them are, wife, mother, housekeeper, grocery shopper, cook, dish washer, seamstress, nurse, laundry lady, taxi driver, counselor, teacher, referee and sometimes even a mind reader. WHEW! That is just at home.

Balancing, or juggling, is a huge key in our lives. How well do we do it?

Have you ever seen a person who can juggle several thing in the air? You watch in astonishment and say "Wow, amazing, how do they do that?" Yet, you do that AND with much more important things everyday. Have you ever sat and watched as that amazing person keeps adding more to his juggling act? How can he do that? Once in a while you will see him drop on but rarely do you see him bend and try to pick it up. The chance of him dropping all the rest is huge. So, he leaves it where it fell and just picks up another one from his pile and adds it to the ones in the air.

What do we let fall? Do we bend over and pick it up? What do we keep? The decision can be overwhelming for us.

So, why do we juggle at all? Our lives, in our world today, demand it. We have to juggle! What do we do then to survive and make sure that we are juggling the right things and not worrying abut the ones that we drop? We hand over our juggling act to the Master Juggler. When we do that, balance just happens. The Master Juggler knows what to let fall and how much to pick up.

He then imparts to us what is good judgment, wise and sensible.

It is folly to talk of things of which we know nothing, and to undertake what we are in way fit for.

Every cautious person acts with knowledge but the fool parades his folly.

We need to hand over our juggling to the Master and then balance and prudence will be evident in our lives.