Sharing Life ~ Getting Wisdom From a Pig

I want to be a wise woman, and I bet your desire is for wisdom, as well. Mentoring is all about sharing life and wisdom with another person. Sometimes there is just no easy way to say a thing, and the writer of Proverbs offers us one of those times as we think about getting wisdom. It is as if the writer of Proverbs just couldn’t hold his tongue in check and blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind in the verse at which we are looking today at Sharing Life.

Warning: prepare for your sensibilities to be assaulted as you join me in Proverbs 11:22.

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

is a beautiful face on an empty head.” (The Message)

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“A woman who is beautiful but lacks discretion

is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.” (NLT)

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“Beauty in a woman without good judgment

is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.” (GNT)

I was the poster child for this proverb for many years. Not the beautiful face part. I was a woman that lacked discretion and good judgment, and my choices bore witness to it. Consider the definition of discretion:

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says that discretion is ‘the quality of being discreet; cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions.”

Sweet Moses! ‘Cautious reserve in speech’ did not characterize me for many years. If a thought came to my mind, it came out my mouth. For many years I excused my lack of discretion by saying,

“that is just how I am—I say what is on my mind.”

The problem was that I did not use good judgment or love in what I said, or in how I said it. I stepped outside the boundaries of God’s love many times with my words and deeds.

I made some horrendously stupid choices in my young adult years that were a result of not using proper discretion. Choices that adversely affected my physical, spiritual, and emotional health. It wasn’t that I did not know better. I did. I simply did not use discretion, nor did I consult Jesus about those choices. Because if I had, I would have made different and better choices.

Placing a ring in a pig’s snout has a purpose….it keeps the pig from rooting around and destroying the ground. But a gold ring in a pig’s snout….well, there is no reason to use gold. What a waste of precious metal!

Discretion assures that we will not root around in the ground of sin, wasting the preciousness of the salvation that Jesus offers us. Discretion leads us down the path of purity, holiness, honesty, and trustworthiness. Just as the ring in the nose of the pig is painful when it roots in the ground, discretion should cause a person to think twice about their actions.

So, are you using discretion in your daily life? In your speech and your actions?

If not, there are three things you can do to get wisdom and discretion: