In addition to Biblical Proverbs, several modern and other proverbial concepts have been helpful in my life.

  1. The Wise Person Learns How to Discuss Negatives in Affirmative Ways for Understanding.
  2. The Wise Person Is Aware that Emotions Nibble Firmly at the Mind for Prominence.
  3. The Wise Person Believes That God Prefers to Solve Problems than Judge Them.
  4. The Wise Person Is Patient With the Complexity of Life Context.
  5. The Wise Person Practices the Virtues Found in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
  6. The Wise Person Seeks Genuine Humility Born of God’s Meaning.
  7. The Wise Person Knows That Personal Peace Is Available in Any Circumstance.
  8. The Wise Person Tries to Find That Which is Affirmative in the Ugliest Situations.
  9. The Wise Person Looks for Reasons, to Replace or Preempt Excuses.
  10. The Wise Person Desires Involvement Engaging Others, Not Interfering With Them.
  11. The Wise Person Looks for Models of That Which Works for the Good Life.
  12. The Wise Person Uses the Best Tools, Procedures, Attitudes and Directives For Each Problem, Person, or Possibility.
  13. The Wise Person Gives Attention to Affirmative, Thoughtful and Learning Prayer.
  14. The Wise Person Adapts to Biblical Styles of Parables, Questions, Righteousness, Logics, Contexts in the Development of Applied Christian Faith Experience.
  15. The Wise Person Respects That Some Truths are to Be Communicated, Not Necessarily Defended, Proved or Expected.
  16. The Wise Person Believes in the Equality of All Persons to Responsibility With Dignity.
  17. The Wise Person Knows That, for Mankind, Some Helps Enter Through Humor Appropriate to Wholesome Imagination.
  18. The Wise Person Knows That When All Has Been Said and Done, That Everything Has Not Been Said and Done.

This last proverb assists us in humility.  We try, and may fail.  That is because we, as human beings, seem to require some level of omission, self, or suffering before we pick up on the best tracks for living and problem solving.  For decades society knew that smoking was harmful to health.  At last the evidence was clear, and public nagging continues, so that even many persons resisting abstinence from the habit agree.  In the twenty years before this writing, the habit of tobacco smoking has dramatically declined.  Knowledge, to understanding, to wisdom won – greatly assisted by the ordinary daily life of finding values, communications, models, and a firmness about what is better now than that which is past, perhaps tradition.

The Christian ought to use what is available to communicate a culture of righteousness, model it, and use the involvement of the Church in achieving results.  The process has worked in the past for many improvements.  Some believe it saved western civilization.  It wasn’t a perfect or balanced effort, but it held the essentials that gave hope and continuance.  God apparently made up for human weaknesses.  We need to call on the same effort and grace.  Without that grace, even the short range future is not assured.  The Christian, settled in faith, is called upon to share that gift of righteous culture (biblical values in thought and action) for the good of all society, pagan or Christian, becoming mixed in application.  We can be sure the effort is not wasted even if the results are not uniform.  God uses it.  Societies are cross-pollinated.  God knows the problems related to social change for good.  We seek his solutions. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020