Nothing Compares
Scripture Reading — Proverbs 8:1-11
Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold. Proverbs 8:10
During a Sunday-morning worship time, I began a children's message by taking a one-dollar bill out of my wallet and then using a scissors to cut that dollar into tiny pieces. The children and adults in the congregation were amazed and dismayed that money had been destroyed--even though it was only a dollar.
Perhaps I had developed my attitude about that dollar from being surrounded by so much money during my banking career. Cutting up a one-dollar bill did not seem like such a big deal.
It's ironic that we place so much value on a dollar bill, and yet we often minimize where true value is found. Proverbs tells us that no stash of precious stones compares to wisdom. In its wise sayings, Proverbs offers us a treasure trove worth more than gold and silver: right attitudes about dealing with possessions; keeping our work careers in the right perspective; how wise parents and children and husbands and wives and true friends will treat each other.
The New Testament identifies the power for wise living as the Holy Spirit, who works in and through us every day--on the heights; where paths meet; on the roads that enter our city, town, or village; in places of commerce; where we stop to buy food--wherever the Spirit has called us to live out God's wisdom.
Holy Spirit, make us wise. Help us to keep our work, wealth, and possessions in proper perspective. Help us to use your Word to set our priorities for the week ahead. Amen.
About the author — Fred Bultman
Fred Bultman began a “second career” as a pastor in 1997, after a first career in the banking business. He served as pastor to congregations in the U.S. and Canada. In retirement, he continues to enjoy sharing in the ministry of the churches in and around his home in Fremont, Michigan.
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