Wiser or smarter?
During the beginning of my adolescence I began to become more and more concerned about being a person with a lot of knowledge, intelligence and of course wisdom. I believed that if I studied a lot about many subjects I would manage to become a wise person.
As I grew up, like every young person, I sought acceptance from the world and believed that I was becoming increasingly wiser because I lived under the thought of "I know much more than the rest", and in reality, without realizing it, I was becoming an egocentric person, I lived under my cloud of "wisdom", when in reality I was only becoming a person with knowledge, until I reached the point where I understood what wisdom is and what I have to do to be wise.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who practice this gain understanding and praise the Lord all their lives - Psalm 111:10.
After that moment my life took a 180 degree turn and I understood that I was never going to become a wise person unless God wanted me to have it. That was when I began to pray for wisdom and that is when I understood that God was not going to be wise to me, but rather that He was going to place me in a situation where I had to act and react with wisdom.
My biblical role model is King Solomon, who was appeared to by God in a dream and said , “Ask me for whatever you want me to give you” – 1 Kings 3:5. What endless things would occur to him if God asked him that question? Solomon loved God and understood all that He had done for his father David, so he asked for wisdom to rule Israel.
10 The Lord was pleased when Solomon asked for wisdom. 11 So the Lord said to him,
—Since you asked for wisdom to govern my people with justice, and have not asked for long life or wealth or the death of your enemies, 12 I will grant you what you have asked for and give you a wise and understanding heart, such as no one has ever had or will ever have. - 1 Kings 3:10-12.
After that, Solomon began to encounter many situations where he had to act and react wisely and became the wisest person who ever existed.
Everything has its time, today I see myself as a person who fears God and not as a wise person, because the focus is not on people seeing me as a wise person, but rather being a person who puts his focus on God and He gives me the wisdom that I need to ensure that each situation is done according to the will that He wants.
And are you being wise or intelligent?