Wisdom-Trek © - Archive 2

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 566 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore Proverbs 1 from The Voice translation, which will give us a fresh perspective on this book of timeless wisdom.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Let’s begin our trek today with a brief commentary on chapter 1 as we explore and discover…

Here we go! Before we explore the proverbs themselves, which start in Chapter 10, we are first going to explore nine chapters of poems. The point of these poems is to whet your appetite for how important God’s wisdom is in your life. These poems are speeches. Some of the speeches are from father to a son that you get to listen in on. Others are from a character called “Lady Wisdom” and are written directly to you. In Chapter 1, we hear from both of these voices.

Before these speeches, there is an introduction to the entire book. The book opens with a pep-talk about its purpose, and the message is clear—whether or not you think you’ve got life figured out, you need this advice. The introduction ends by saying that gaining wisdom will be impossible if you don’t cultivate humility for God’s authority—“the Fear of the Lord,” a theme that will appear many times in this book. “Only fools despise knowledge and discernment,” concludes verse 7, bringing up the implied question: “Wise or foolish—which are you going to be?”

After the introduction comes a speech, the first of ten, from father to a son. There’s consistent language here about resisting evil, and the father doesn’t pull any punches while warning his son. His words are concise, direct, and rather forceful—if people tempt you with claims of an easy, deceitful life of “ill-gotten gains,” do not follow them. Period. It will only bring ruin. Period. The father ends with especially descriptive words about the violence that will come from falling into these ways.

The next speech is the first from Lady Wisdom, a character in this book who personifies the concept of wisdom. She claims that rejecting her advice will lead to self-destruction and you’ll only have yourself to blame. If you don’t listen to wisdom, you’re going to crash and burn. Hard. She’s pretty much going to bust out with “I told you so.”

As a whole, Chapter 1 bluntly cuts to the point—our choices are a serious matter, but wisdom is accessible to us. The stakes are high, but we have instruction to guide us. Guard yourself, pay attention, and consider carefully how you will respond. Are you going to be open-minded and learn new ways of living well in God’s world? Of course, the answer should be YES!

1 I, Solomon, David’s son and Israel’s king, pass on to you these proverbs—a treasury of wisdom—

2 So that you would recognize wisdom and value discipline; that you would understand insightful teaching

3 And receive wise guidance to live a disciplined life; that you would seek justice and have the ability to choose what is right and fair.

4 These proverbs teach the naive how to become clever; they instruct the young in how to grow in knowledge and live with discretion.

5 The wise will pay attention to these words and will grow in learning, and the discerning will receive divine guidance,

6 And they will be able to interpret the meaning of a proverb and a puzzle, the twists and turns in the words of the wise and their riddles.

7 Let us begin. The worship of the Eternal One, the one True God, is the first step toward knowledge. Fools, however, do not fear God and cannot stand wisdom or guidance.

8 So, my son, pay attention to your father’s guidance, and do not ignore what your mother taught you—

9 Wear their wisdom as a badge of honor and maturity, as fine jewelry around your neck.

10 My son, should your less honorable peers pressure you to do what is wrong,

you should be strong enough not to go along.

11 If they should say, Come on! Everyone, hide and let’s wait to see whom we can beat to a pulp. We’re going to jump some unsuspecting chumps for no reason at all.

12 We’ll have our way with them, and when we’re through, there will be nothing left, as if their bodies were swallowed whole by the grave’s dark pit.

13 We’ll take whatever we want—all their wealth and their fancy clothes—

and when we’re through, we’ll have piles of their treasure for our own.

14 You have to join us; forget about God. We’re going to rake in the goods, and we’ll share all we take!

15 My son, do not join them; keep well away from their violent, destructive paths.

16 For they run right away, every time, to do wrong, and they are thirsty for blood.

17 You see, it makes no sense to bait the net and set the trap while the bird is watching,

18 But these hiding in the shadows and waiting to spill innocent blood are really just hastening their own destruction!

By giving into their sinful desires, they set themselves up to be ambushed.

19 This is what happens to everyone who tries to profit by violence;

violence will eventually rob them of their very lives.

20 There’s another voice in town. It belongs to Lady Wisdom, who calls out in the street. She cries out in the town square,

21 At the city gates, in the noisy city streets, you can hear her speaking over the racket.

22 Lady Wisdom says: You simple, naive people, how long will you love your feeble ways? You simpletons, how long will you enjoy making fun of what you don’t understand?  You fools, how long will you hate learning what truly matters?

23 Turn to me and receive my gentle correction; Watch and I will pour out my spirit on you; I will share with you my wise words in order to redirect your lives.

24 You hear, but you have refused to answer my call. My hands reached out, but no one noticed.

25 All my advice, all my correction, all have been neglected— you wanted nothing of them.

26 So I will be the laughter you hear when misfortune comes, and it will come.

I will be the mocking sound when panic grips you—

27 When panic comes like a stormy blast, when misfortune sweeps in like a whirlwind, when sorrow and anguish weigh you down.

28 This is when they will call on me, but I will not respond; they will be frantic to find me, but they won’t be able.

29 Because they despised knowledge of my ways, and they also refused to respect and honor the Eternal,

30 Because they rejected my advice and turned down my correction,

31 They will surely get what’s coming to them: they’ll be forced to eat the fruit of their wicked ways; they’ll gorge themselves on the consequences of their choices.

32 You see, it’s turning away from me that brings death to the simple,

and it’s self-satisfaction that destroys the fools.

33 But those who listen to me now will live under divine protection;

they can rest knowing they are out of harm’s way.

That will conclude our exploration of Proverbs 1. Next week we will continue with Chapter 2, and each week we will explore a full chapter in Proverbs. I hope that you will join us each week so that you can gain wisdom, insight, and understanding for yourself.

All of the Proverbs provide us with rich wisdom, insight, and understanding on a myriad of life issues. Regardless of where you are in your faith walk, if you apply the precepts in Proverbs, your life will be rich and satisfying. I encourage you to take them and plant the seeds of wisdom in your heart so that you will reap a harvest of wisdom throughout your life.

Tomorrow we will hike another short trail of Wisdom Unplugged where we will discover an inspirational wisdom quote. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 565 of our trek, and it is time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

Today’s quote is from William A. Foster who said, “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

Quality in our lives and all of our endeavors boils down to the choices that we make. We can choose to barely get by in our work and in our relationships, or we can choose to invest our highest intentions and our most sincere efforts.

We can choose to make wise and intelligent decisions on the direction we will take, and we can choose to master the art of execution skillfully. It all boils down to the choices that we make.

Most of the time our choices are not choices between bad and good or between wrong or right. Most of our choices are between what is good, better or best. Choose wisely in every decision that you make small or large, and you will live a quality life and have a quality impact on others.

As Ecclesiastes 10:2 tells us, “A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one.” We are also instructed in Romans 6:16, “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.”

That’s a wrap for today’s Wisdom Unplugged. If you enjoy these quotes, I have created and published a searchable database of over 10,000 quotes that I have collected for many years. If you would like free access to my database of inspirational quotes, the link is available on the main page of Wisdom-Trek.com.

As you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, please encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow for Wisdom Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 564 of our trek, and we are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack.

Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks we will explore a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 11th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Values.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. When this episode originally airs, I will be back in Arizona working on our construction project. We have finished up completely on the first six townhomes, and they are on the market. We are also nearly complete with the second six. If sales are strong, the funding group will move forward with the next two pods of six units each. There are a lot of details in finalizing the buildings, and it always takes longer and costs more than expected.

It is our desire to bring value to both the funding group and the ultimate purchasers of the townhomes. As parents and grandparents, we should bring value to those whom we impact with our lives. To bring value, our lives must be built on a solid foundation of values which are driven by our moral code and integrity. So the tool that we will explore today is…

Every parent and grandparent needs to articulate and demonstrate a clearly defined set of values. That set of values must be firmly rooted in a moral code. The best and most complete moral code is found in God’s Word. We should love to live and stand firm on that foundation. Psalms 119:47 reads, “How I delight in your commands! How I love them!”

Every day the influences of society try to shape your values. Society wants you to focus on the distractions and temptations of our troubled 21st century world. Society’s value system is far different from God’s value system. If you are wise, you will pay more attention to the things that distract you from His precepts.

When God’s values are woven into the very fabric of your life, they become your values, and then you share in His abundance of peace. If you adopt a worldview that is contrary to God precepts you are opening yourself up to making unwise and unhealthy choices.

You live in a world that is filled with countless opportunities to make some very unwise choices. The common worldview with its political correction cries out, “Worship me with your time, your money, your energy, and your thoughts,” but God commands otherwise. He commands you to worship Him and adore Him alone. Everything else must be secondary.

To experience God’s peace and blessings and then teach them to others, you must build your life and indeed your entire value system on His foundation, which is the Bible.

Teaching a Biblically based value system to your children, grandchildren, and others that you impact is paramount. For a society to function properly, the family unit must be solid. God, through His prophet Isaiah, tells us in 48:18, “Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.” 

If you want to be proactive in the way you live your life. If you want to influence your life’s direction. If you want your life to exhibit the qualities you find desirable. If you want to live with integrity…then you need to know what your values are. You need to embrace them and practice them every day.

Sadly, most family problems, whether they are relational or financial, are seldom the real problem. They are often a symptom of a weak or non-existent value system.

God gives us this pattern of values in Deuteronomy 11:18-21, “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.” 

God’s Word is the guide book for which you must establish your value system and then be able to show and teach them to others Joshua 1:8, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

With these thoughts in mind, we will conclude our trek for today and close Gramps’ backpack. Before I do, I will pass the tool of values onto you. Once you have this tool in your backpack, it is up to you to establish a life with a strong foundation of values. Once you have accomplished that you then need to teach and train your children, grandchildren, and everyone you impact why those values are so necessary for your life and should be in theirs. When you possess a solid foundation of values, regardless of any difficult circumstances, you can have a life that is both rich and satisfying.

Next Monday we will investigate the 12th tool in Gramps’ backpack, which is Prayer. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 563 of our trek and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

Currently, we are on an extended multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors, such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I have adapted it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Although it has been a cold week outside, especially compared to the mild winter, we do see new signs of spring each day. Our pair of red shoulder hawks continue daily in preparing their nest, our family of deer has been sauntering through our yard, the daffodils are blooming nicely, and the days contain progressively more hours of light with each passing week.

Although I love each season of the year, spring is especially invigorating as it brings new life to each new day. There is intrinsic value with each new flower that blooms and each new creature that is born.

As we continue on our extended trek, today we will explore the value of each new skill that we learn so that we can grow in the results that we achieve with each new skill we obtain. If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and continue on the fourth trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The development of new skills is vitally important if you expect to make major progress and improve the level of your performance. A person can chop down a tree with a hammer, but it might take thirty days. By learning to use an ax, he can accomplish the same goal in thirty minutes. If he advances his skills even further and uses a chainsaw, he can accomplish the same task in about three minutes.

Life and labor get easier when knowledge is combined with new skills. Skill is the refinement of your current abilities added to the acquisition of new talents. It is the result of investigation driven by curiosity. It is the result of creativity and imagination intelligently applied to new methods. It is a product of refined attempts as emerging quality rises to new levels. Skill is also a thorough understanding of the task at hand that comes from patient study and serious observation.

Skill is what is acquired when a person becomes the master of a task. It is having full confidence in your ability and in your command of the many intricacies of your jobs. Skill is the process of learning. Skill is the result of accumulating a mountain of experience and the never-ending dedication to making good things better.

Those who would possess happiness and success must first master as many skills as they can gather up, blending each into all of the rest until finally a unique talent emerges. With the accumulated value of your skills and talents, all things become possible.

How dramatically you can change your results is largely a function of imagination. In 1960, it was a technological impossibility for man to travel into outer space. Within ten years, however, the first man stepped out onto the surface of the moon. The miraculous process of converting the dream into reality began when one voice challenged the scientific community to do whatever was necessary to see to it that America “places a man on the moon by the end of this decade.” That challenge awakened the spirit of a nation by planting the seed of possible future achievement into the fertile soil of imagination. With that one bold challenge, the impossible became a reality.

Can a poor person become wealthy? Of course! The unique combination of desire, planning, effort, and perseverance will always work its magic. The question is not whether the formula for success will work, but rather whether the person will work the formula. That is the unknown variable. That is the challenge that confronts us all. You can go from wherever you are to wherever you want to be. No dream is impossible provided you first have the courage to believe in it.

Solving financial difficulty is easy, but it is also easy not to solve. If the rewards are eluding you, then the best place to start is with an honest look at your results. If the results are not there, something is wrong. The lack of results is symptomatic of a problem that needs to be addressed and corrected. To ignore the symptom is merely to perpetuate the cause. Rarely will a problem repair itself. Instead, a neglected problem intensifies.

Those whose efforts have produced a poor result often have a lengthy list of reasons to justify their poor progress. To them the items on the list are not excuses; they are reasons. They blame the company, or they blame the boss. They blame taxes or the overall economy. They blame their parents or the teachers or the system. Sometimes they even blame the politicians or the overall government.

While any one of these items may not be perfect, they are not the cause of poor results. If this were the case, then no one would succeed. The fact is that in two nearly identical situations, some people have successful results, and some have dismal failures.

It almost always boils down to the price that a person is willing to pay for successful results. There is no shortage of opportunity throughout the world. There is only a shortage of those who will apply themselves to the basics that success requires. There is always a price that needs to be paid for the seeds of success and the nurturing of success to reap the harvest of success.

The question is, “Are you willing to pay the price for the success you wish to harvest, regardless of what that success means to you?” Your results will be in proportion to your investment. One of Jesus’s parables is a good example of this principle. Matthew 25:16-18 reads, “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.” The entire story can be found in verses 14-30.

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we continue our hike today on the Trail of Results. Today you learned that we must invest in ourselves and pay the price required for success. I am not just referring to financial success, but success in all areas of your life. To achieve better results in your life, you must plant the seeds of self-development and nurture them into new skills. Once you have these skills, then you must invest time and resources that will reap a harvest of success. This concept is rooted in the basic fundamentals of the law of planting and harvesting.

Next Philosophy Friday we will explore the importance of Checking and Measuring Results Continually. So join us next Friday for these additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.

Our next trek is on Monday, and we will continue our series called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack as we equip you with the tools needed to impact the lives of others. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 562 of our trek, and it is time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

Today’s quote is from Dr. Charles Stanley who said, “Our challenge for today and every day is to make it a priority to invest time with the Lord in His Word. We may have to reorganize our schedule or wake up earlier. But it’s worth the effort — discernment, and wisdom await us if we put into practice the truths we absorb each day.”

What are your priorities? You may think you know them, but to really understand what your priorities are, keep track of what you invest your time and money on. Once you do this, you may certainly need to rearrange your life so that your actions actually are in line with your desired priorities.

One area of life that many people neglect is their spiritual health. To be strong spiritually, you must invest the time needed to learn from God’s Word, which will build up your spiritual muscle and strengthen you as a Christ-follower. You can also think of the time invested in learning God’s precepts from the Bible as implementing a filter in your mind so that it will filter out the false and negative input and leave you with a clean spiritual perspective.

Consider God’s Word a Brita Filter for your mind. When you invest time in God’s Word, and it becomes a daily habit, then you will gain the wisdom, insight, and understanding that is needed to live a rich and satisfying life. To be transformed, you need to implement these habits into your daily schedule, which will progressively allow you to change the way you think.

The more time you invest in God’s Word, the more mindset change you will see. As Romans 12:2 tells us, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

That’s a wrap for today’s Wisdom Unplugged quote. If you would like free access to my database of over 10,000 inspirational quotes, the link is available on the main page of Wisdom-Trek.com. As you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com or subscribe on iTunes or Google play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow for Philosophy Friday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 561 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will restart our exploration of Proverbs with a new introduction.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Last week was a busy, but productive week. For one client we are preparing information for their bi-annual audit, which requires assembling data from the past two years. Fortunately, most of this information is stored electronically and is organized. We are also still working on company and personal tax returns for clients, family members, and ourselves.

Since I am creating this podcast before the weekend, if all goes according to plan, we will be investing in a heavy-duty chain saw and will have begun cleaning up the four large trees that we had a tree service cut down for us. The weather is turning cold for this weekend, so we will see how much we are able to accomplish.

Another exciting announcement is that Paula has decided to begin her own podcast called A Quilter’s Life where she will be interviewing people who quilt and allowing them to share their lives as quilters with listeners. We have received very positive feedback from those that we have mentioned it to, so we feel that it will be well received.

We have been working together in preparation of that and hope that she will be able to release her initial interviews within the next 2-3 months. Since Wisdom-Trek is not an interview-based podcast, we have both been learning the additional aspects of what is required to setup and interview others. At this time Paula plans on having weekly episodes for A Quilter’s Life. I will let you know when it is released.

This podcast is a new beginning for her, and as we look at our topic for Wisdom Wednesday, I have decided to start back through the book of Proverbs with a little bit of a different twist.

Today we will look at a brief introduction of the book of Proverbs. Starting next Wednesday, I will read a short synopsis of each chapter and then read the chapter using a newer translation called The Voice, which is slightly more conversational in nature and will give us a different perspective on the book of Wisdom.

Each month as I personally restart reading the book of Proverbs, I look forward to it with a new anticipation. So today let’s begin with our introduction to Proverbs entitled…

The Book of Proverbs is part of the Bible’s wisdom literature. The Bible’s wisdom literature explores the question, “What does it mean to live well in God’s world?” You can think of it as “The Good Life for Dummies.”

Wisdom literature comes in all forms: songs, story, reflection and romance. This book is primarily one form of writing called a proverb. A proverb is a short, pithy statement that contains a powerhouse of wisdom. A proverb is a type of poetry. However, the structure of Hebrew poetry is different than English poems.

In most simple modern poetry, like what we find in greeting cards, two lines are made to rhyme with each other through their final words. Hebrew poetry, on the other hand, contains two lines that don’t rhyme words but rather rhyme ideas. The second line in a Hebrew poem will reinforce the same thought as the first line, but in different words. Most of this book is a collection of these short, poetic pieces of wisdom called proverbs.

The Book of Proverbs is interested in how to architect the best life possible on God’s earth. The proverbs themselves are compact in nature, but they are not trite! The proverbs cover important life lessons, and they do justice to the full complexity of life.

Solomon is the author of many of the proverbs—but not all. The book itself appears to be the work of a later hand who organized it into its final form, such as is mentioned in Chapter 25 verse 1. Solomon authored at least 3,000 proverbs in his day, but only a small percentage of those works made it into this final collection.

As we make our way through this ancient book of wisdom, we’ll look carefully at key terms and major themes that will “gently nudge” us to the prevailing message found in the work. We’ll find that themes like “The fear of the Lord” weave through the entire book.

As we begin, you’ll notice that the first nine chapters are not proverbs, but are instead a series of poems that warm you up as to why you should read the proverbs. These poems tell us about the nature of God’s wisdom and its critical role in our lives.

Next week we will begin with Chapter 1 and continue through the entire book of Proverbs each Wisdom Wednesday over the next 31 weeks. I hope that you will join us each week so that you can gain wisdom, insight, and knowledge yourself.

I have read through the Book of Proverbs between 400-500 times over the past 35 years, and each month I am reminded of the great wisdom truths that are contained in this book. This habit has been the single most impactful practice in obtaining wisdom in my life.

All of the proverbs provide us with rich wisdom, insight, and understanding on a myriad of life issues. Regardless of where you are in your faith walk, if you follow the precepts in Proverbs, your life will be rich and satisfying. I encourage you to take them and plant the seeds of wisdom in your heart so that you will reap a harvest of wisdom throughout your life.

Tomorrow we will hike another short trail of Wisdom Unplugged as we discover an inspirational wisdom quote. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Or you can subscribe at iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 560 of our trek, and it is time for our 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

Today’s quote is from George C. Lichtenberg who said, “One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything — and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”

Do you believe everything that you are told, or do you question what is being said to verify if it is true? A wise and prudent person does not accept what they hear or see at face value. It is wise to listen, make sure you comprehend, and then allow what is being said or shown to be filtered through your past experiences as well as through your value system built on moral and ethical standards. You should question your inputs to see if it lines up with Biblical teachings and precepts.

As you gain wisdom, insight, and knowledge, you will come to understand that while we can and should question, there are situations and circumstances in life that you cannot change. As you mature in wisdom, you will need to change what you can, accept those things that you cannot change, and realize that you cannot control everything that happens. When this is the case, you have to come to terms with that.

A good example of this is found in Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.”

That’s a wrap for today’s Wisdom Unplugged. If you enjoy these quotes, I have created and published a searchable database of over 10,000 quotes that I have collected for many years. If you would like free access to my database of inspirational quotes, the link is available on the main page of Wisdom-Trek.com.

As you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, please encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow for Wisdom Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 559 of our trek, and we are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack.

Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks we are exploring a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 10th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Patience.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Life is hectic, and situations can really try our patience. In our instant everything world that we now live in, we lose patience so easily. If our fast food meal takes us five minutes to receive, if a website takes more than a few seconds to load, if we get behind someone driving that happens to be driving just the speed limit, we go crazy. This is why it is so important that we include the tool of patience in our backpack as one of our character traits. We first need to learn it ourselves, which is very difficult, and then through patience, we need to teach it to others. So the tool that we will explore today is… 

Patience is a tool that every thoughtful parent and grandparent needs themselves and to then skillfully teach it to others. The lack of patience is really a sign of foolishness and selfishness. The reason we become impatient is that we feel that our time and priorities are more important than others.

Patience is the embodiment of love. Love is an exercise in patience. One of the attributes of love is being patient. 1 Corinthians 13:4 reads, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud.”

From time to time, even our most considerate friends and family members may do things that worry us, confuse us, or anger us. Why is this? Because they are human and not perfect, just like we are. It is exactly because they are human that we must be patient with their shortcomings, just as they need to be with ours. Ephesians 4:2 tells us, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” 

St. Augustine said that Patience is the companion of wisdom. It is also listed as part of the fruit of the spirit contained in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

The next time that you find yourself getting irritated and drumming your fingers while waiting for a loved one to do the right thing on a timely basis, take a deep breath and relax. Ask God for a little more patience. After all, we have very little control over most circumstances and events in our lives anyway. Impatience just makes the journey much more miserable. The world unfolds according to God’s timetable, not ours. For that matter, our acquaintances, friends, and loved ones live and grow according to their time table too. Sometimes we must wait patiently, and that is a good thing because it helps us to grow our patience. After all, think about how patient God is with us, and our shortcomings. Colossians 3:12-14 reads, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”

With these thoughts in mind, we will conclude our trek for today and close Gramps’ backpack. Before I do, I will pass the tool of Patience onto you. Once you have this tool in your backpack, it is up to you use it in your own life by becoming more patient, humble, and gentle. Then teach and train your children, grandchildren, and everyone you impact to be more patient. This can only be done if it is first demonstrated in your life. When you possess this kind of patience, regardless of your circumstance, you can have a life that is both rich and satisfying.

Next Monday we will investigate the 11th tool in Gramps’ backpack, which is Values. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy, and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the daily journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes and Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week, wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 558 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

Currently, we are on an extended multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I have adapted it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I have been able to be in the office all week and have enjoyed watching our pair of Red Shoulder Hawks as they arrived back to repair and prepare their nest for this year. They work hard to make sure the nest is ready for bringing new chicks into the world.

In addition to that, a few weeks ago we also had four large trees cut down by a professional tree service. To save costs, we requested that they just drop the trees and cut them into large sections. My plan for the weekend is to cut them into fireplace size logs. The diameter of the large sections will be a challenge, but it will provide a lot of firewood for the next few winters. Since I usually work 10-12 hours a day in front of the computer, I look forward to being outside performing physical labor as I have the opportunity. The more that I expand my skillset, the better person I am become overall.

We are continuing on our extended trek focusing on our 4th trail which is The Trail of Results. Specifically, we will explore how better results are produced by becoming a better person. If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and continue on the fourth trail of this extended trek as we cover…

As a reminder, our overall extended trek covers these five trails:

1. Philosophy
2. Attitude
3. Activity
4. Results
5. Lifestyle

You first become and then you attract. You grow personally, and then you advance materially. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people seem to have the plan reversed. Their philosophy is “If I had more money, I would be a better person.” That is not the way life is designed to work. You cannot harvest a crop unless you first plant and then nurture it. Having more money or things doesn’t make you more, it merely magnifies what you already are. Those who cannot save a few pennies out of meager earnings will never be able to save dollars out of future fortunes. The same discipline it takes to put a few coins in a jar every week is the same discipline it takes to open a savings account or manage a large investment portfolio.

The conversation about your intended progress will only take you so far and promises about your future will only buy you a little time. Promises must soon be matched by performance. If your results do not appear in a reasonable amount of time, you run the risk of losing the trust of others in addition to your own self-respect. You may find that those who once believed you no longer do, and you will one day be left only with your well-intentioned, but unfulfilled pronouncements.

A loss of this magnitude is worth preventing. It is on the day when you discover your losses that you will taste the bitter pill of neglect. It is on that day when you will finally experience the agonizing consequences of self-delusion, procrastination, and unkempt promises.

Will you read the books, make the plans, make good use of your time, invest a portion of all that you earn, polish your current skills, attend classes to develop new skills, and get around better people to improve your chances for success? Will you tell the truth, improve your ability to communicate, use your journals, and give careful attention to all the virtues that success requires? Or will you be content to let the time slip through your fingers like grains of sand while you slowly lose self-confidence, the respect of others, and perhaps even the few possessions and valuable relationships that your past efforts have managed to attract into your life? Will you go on sitting idly by while your dreams diminish to memories as hope gives way to remorse? Surely not.

As certainly as you once dreamed, you can dream again. As surely as you once believed, you can believe again. No matter where you are right now, you still have the ability to change it all.

The journey toward success is a journey of a thousand steps, and it begins with a single book or a single promise finally kept. It begins with the awakening of your sleeping spirit brought on by dreams of all that could be.

Any day you choose, you can stand up and take that first step on a journey that can lead you to a new and better way of life. You must not expect the results merely because you have begun the activity, but with continued effort and certain steps surely come to your future rewards. As we are told in Galatians 6:7-9, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we continue our hike today on the Trail of Results. Today you learned to harvest better results, then we must be continually planting better seeds of improvement into our lives. That is to say, you must become more valuable as a person and more valuable to others. To achieve better results in your life, you must plant the seeds of self-development. This concept is rooted in the basic fundamentals of the law of planting and harvesting. The law of planting and harvesting is always in force, just like the law of gravity.

Next Philosophy Friday we will explore The Value of New Skills. So join us next Friday for these additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.

Our next trek is on Monday, and we will continue our series called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack as we equip you with the tools needed to impact the lives of others. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 557 of our trek, and it is time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

Today’s quote is from Ben Franklin who said, “On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

That is quite a mouthful from Ben Franklin, but there is certainly some deep truth contained in it. None of us will ever reach perfection although we should continually strive for that level. Instead of perfection, we should be excellent in all that we do, even if it is not perfect.

It is indeed true that we will have much more happiness, contentment, joy, and peace if we endeavor to stretch beyond what we think we are capable of achieving. Another shorter, but similar quote is, “It is better to have tried and failed than to not have tried at all.”

I realize that I have used this Bible verse from the Apostle Paul several times before, but it is so applicable to Ben Franklin’s quote. It is found in Philippians 3:12-14. I am quoting from The Voice translation to give us a slightly different perspective, “I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything, and everything the Anointed One, Jesus, has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go.  Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed.” 

That’s a wrap for today’s Wisdom Unplugged quote. If you would like free access to my database of over 10,000 inspirational quotes, the link is available on the main page of Wisdom-Trek.com. As you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com or subscribe on iTunes or Google play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow for Philosophy Friday!