“But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.” Proverbs 1:33
At the time of writing this post, one of my daughters will soon be starting cosmetology school. Like her older sister who’s in the industry and has done really well, Courtney has also had a knack for hair and makeup for a good while and seemed to have no hesitation at all in knowing that this was the career path she wanted to pursue.
Although she’s looking forward to the training, in a recent conversation she expressed some dread and apprehension in taking the 10-month intensive course. She knows it’s going to be a lot of information thrown at her at once and she’s a little worried about how she’ll do. Having full confidence in her, I reassured her that she would do great and gave her a couple of pieces of advice. The first was listen, and the second one was to actually enjoy.
Not that I’ve ever been an expert in education by any means, but I found these two pieces of wisdom to be helpful for me when I went through the real-estate course to get my bookers license several years ago. It was said to be one of the hardest courses and the pass rate for first time state exam takers isn’t that high. I just simply found that if I focused on what was being discussed by the teacher and didn’t allow my mind to wonder in a million different directions, I actually retained the information and enjoyed the class, and to my amazement and a lot of prayer, I passed the test with flying colors.
The word “listen” in Proverbs 1:33 comes from the Hebrew word shama, and one of its definitions is “to hear with attention or interest.” Our Heavenly Father, through the help of the Holy Spirit, wants to teach us a lot of things to guide us through this life and help us grow and develop along the way. But one thing that is certainly required on our part is to “listen” and as the definition says, “to listen with attention and interest.”
With this piece of wise counsel also comes a promise. And that promise is that if we choose to “listen” that we will actually enjoy this life and live in peace without fear of harm.
Today, let’s listen, learn and enjoy.