That piece of wisdom comes out of my own experience. It flashed through my brain as I walked away after having done just that: made a fool of myself. I wanted to impress someone and asked what I thought was a brilliant question. As it came out my mouth, I realised how dumb it was. But the lesson was a very good one and this piece of wisdom is something I try to live by. It encourages me to have a go at things others might criticise. This I need to do. I see this as a way the Holy Spirit has taught me through life. There are other pieces of wisdom I have learnt from experience. This great procrastinator regularly says to herself, ‘You only get a thing done by doing it.’
These pieces of wisdom are applicable to me. Yours would be different. I think everyone reading this has a few pieces of wisdom that they have learnt from life, and the Holy Spirit disguised within their lives. Personally, I have found it very empowering to think of the things that life has taught me. Not what I have got from books, or from others but from my own lived experience. As I have done this, I have realised just how much the Holy Spirit was teaching me in the messy, mixed-up life I have had. I now realise that God is at work teaching us through life far more than we realise.
This is important for you as parents, guardians and teachers. As you own your own wisdom, you realise that God is teaching and guiding those in your care, as much as God has guided you. Owning your own unique wisdom could be one of the best lessons you can teach your children. Life might be tough, we might have been pushed around badly, but if we learn from these tough, and often not so tough, or even funny times, we gain a degree of control and dignity in our lives, in our own experience. We also give those in our care the ability to trust life, to believe that we can grow even in and through difficult circumstances. Try to take some time to put into words what life, the Holy Spirit, has taught you. Live by this wisdom, share this wisdom. And encourage others to discover their own.
Come Holy Spirit, let me see where you have worked in my life and taught me. Help me to acknowledge my own wisdom and teach my child/ren to do the same. I ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear me.
Sr Kym Harris osb