Wisdom-Trek ©

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 654 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

When You Fall, Get Back Up – Mindshift Monday

 

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 654 of our trek, and it is time for our Mindshift Monday series.

Wisdom-Trek’s primary focus is to assist you in creating your living legacy. Creating your living legacy can only be accomplished by gaining wisdom in many areas of life. You can only gain wisdom by changing what you allow to go into your mind, which is a result of changing the way you think.

In other words, to create your living legacy you must choose to be in a continual mode of “mindshift,” or “changing the way you think.” It is easy to get stuck in a mindset that your current circumstances cannot be changed. This is not true, but you must understand this fundamental principle…In order to change your life, you must change how you think and what you think about. Our Mindshift Monday podcast and journal serves to provide you practical ways to make a mindshift to a rich and satisfying life. 

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I am finally caught up and back on schedule with the Wisdom-Trek podcasts that were delayed due to my accident. I will be releasing a couple of more episodes this week covering my accident and recovery on Tuesday and Thursday.

Since I have always been a person who enjoys working long hours and am very active, this time of recovery has been a mindshift challenge for me. I know if I am to recover properly, then it cannot be business as usual for me. Paula has been assisting a lot, and we are adapting to this change in our normal schedule.

Even with an unexpected major life event, we continue to positively look toward the future and what we can learn. Our mindset is very important with every aspect of life. If your first inclination is to think negatively, then a mindshift is required. You cannot get trapped by your current situation and feel there is no way to change it.

Just as my literal fall and accident two weeks ago, we will have many times in our lives where we will fall. The key is that each time we need to get back up, recover as needed, and then keep moving forward. So on our trek today I desire you to have a mindshift that will allow you to realize…

When You Fall, Get Back Up

When you are teaching a child to walk, they will fall down, usually many times. They may also get bumped and cry. When they do, we don’t tell them to give up. No, we instead encourage them to get up and try again, as many times as necessary until they are able to walk, and then run.Life is very much like a baby who is just learning to walk.  There are days in which the going is smooth.  Success is ours to enjoy.  There are also many days of distress, hours of hindrances, minutes of misunderstandings, and seconds of stumbling falling flat on your face.  Since the path of life’s trek is rocky, and the trail to the top has many unexpected turns, it is important for you to realize three things concerning the obstacles, and wash outs, on the trail to the top.

1. There will be times when you will fall.

Anyone who hikes down the trails of life not only has the privilege of enjoying all that is around them but also must take the risk of falling.  When you rise to the occasion, you may fall prey to the enemy. Any person that is willing to stand for something may at times be knocked down. Just like a baby learning to walk, we become careless and get in a hurry. Many time this happens just before we reach our goal. It looks as though we’ve been successful. The obstacles have been overcome. The sweet smell of victory permeates the air. But then…we lose our footing,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 653 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Why Are We Afraid?

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 653 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

For the next several weeks, we will focus on how to live with less fear. We will explore the trails on our trek of life that will help us to be fearless. This does not imply that we will reach the point where were are completely without any fear, for that is not only impossible, but also not wise. There is a time and a place for an appropriate level of fear, but most fear that we experience on a daily basis has no grounding and can be eliminated as we grow in wisdom, insight, and understanding. So our objective for these next several Fridays is to experience a FearLess Friday on our trek of life. Today is our second trail on our trek covering Imagine a Life Without Fear.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. As mentioned on previous treks, on July 8th I suffered a fall from a ladder that fractured my upper femur bone. I am focusing the next few Tuesday and Thursday “Wisdom-Nugget” episodes sharing my story of the accident and recovery. The story begins with Wisdom-Trek.com/day-645. A major life event such as this strikes fear into our hearts of how our lives will change or how it could have been even worse. Last Friday we started a series focusing on imagining a life without fear. The focus of our trek today is…

Why Are We Afraid?

In Matthew 8:26, Jesus asked his disciples who were in a boat with Him in a middle of a violent storm, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!”

At first glance of this verse, if you were one of the disciples in the boat with him, you would be thinking, “Jesus, are you serious?”  Is he kidding, teasing, or being sarcastic? This is kind of like one swimmer asking another, “Why are you wet?” I don’t think Jesus was smiling. He was very earnest. So are the men to whom he asks the question. A storm has turned their Galilean dinner cruise into a white-knuckled plunge that was so severe that seasoned fishermen are scared to death.

Here is how the Apostle Matthew remembers the trip in Matthew 8:23-24, "Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, 'Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!'"

Matthew remembered well the pouncing tempest and bouncing boat and was careful in his wording. The English word “fierce storm” minimizes the actual word that Matthew chose in the Greek language. Matthew chose the word Seismos – a quake, a trembling eruption of the sea and sky. We could translate this verse as “a great seismos arose on the lake.” A seismograph is an instrument we currently use to measure earth quakes.

The disciples had “sudden fear” – the kind that makes you go pale or faint, a fear that leaves you unable to speak or scream.

Not all storms come suddenly. Prairie farmers in the US or hunters in the Serengeti can see a formation of thunderclouds hours before the rain. This storm, however, springs like a lion out of the grass. One minute the disciples are playing dice on the deck, and next thing they are drenched with waves as the boat rides over the mountains and valleys of water.

Peter and John were seasoned sailors and may have struggled to get the sails down in time. Matthew, a tax collector, was not used to this type of storm and probably stru...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 652 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Hospital Recovery, Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way – Wisdom Unplugged

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 652 of our trek and time for the 5th installment of a special series of stories that will chronicle my recent accident and recovery as we trek “Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way.”

This accident is a major life event that will change life for me for several months to come. In fact, I would say that it will certainly impact me for the remainder of my life.

It is my hope and prayer that as I share that it will also positively impact your life as well. I have often said, we must accept and live life as it truly is, not as we wished it to be. We don’t always know or understand what will become of the uphill climbs and treacherous downhill slopes that we encounter on life’s trek.

The key is to learn from these events and allow them to effectively become part of our living legacy which will positively impact our lives and the lives of all those who we impact. So for the next couple of Wisdom Nuggets episodes, we will look at...

Hospital Recovery  - Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way

It is my hope to get caught up to current on all my podcast episodes and journal this coming weekend so that the release dates correspond to the actual date they are released. If you would like to catch the first three episodes of this series, go to Day 645,  Day 647, and Day 650.

I ended Day 650, which was my story of the surgery, with the somber thought that not only could the accident have been fatal if I had landed on my head, but both during surgery, and an episode afterward, my pulse had dropped to zero for a few moments.  We really do need to treasure each day of life and make the most impact possible as we live out our living legacy each day.

Sunday night after surgery was not a very good night of sleep as I was still in pain, and my mind wandered to the two episodes where my pulse had dropped. I dozed off and on, but between the monitoring, lab work, and my roommate's loud snoring, I did not achieve significant rest. Paula once again slept in the reclining chair, and although she did sleep more than I did was not very comfortable either. After a good breakfast on Monday, the hospital staff seemed very positive about how quickly I was rebounding after surgery and that I was able to be up and working remotely on Monday. We saw several additional staff members throughout the day, each with his or her own area of expertise, as we planned my physical therapy and when I would be able to be discharged.

One concern they had was that my hemoglobin and red blood counts had dropped after surgery, which usually indicates a loss of blood. My left leg was swollen significantly, and we started to ice it in hopes of reducing the swelling. I believe the tightness in my leg was actually causing more pain than the surgery itself. With these factors and since we had not met with physical therapy yet, we all thought it would be best to stay at least one more night.

In the afternoon, occupational therapy came and guided me on walking with a walker up and down the hall. They were very pleased with how quickly I adapted to the walker and that I was able to go quite a distance without getting too worn out. I let them know that we did have stairs at home both going into the house and also 18 steps to the 2nd floor. They assured me that they would provide stair training for me the following day. I was so glad to be able to now get up and walk with the walker now although with limited distance. At least that freed me to use the bathroom.

A couple of hours after that,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 651 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Speak Less, Listen More - Proverbs 18

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 651 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 18 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. If you are a regular listener or reader of the Wisdom-Trek Podcast and Journal, you may realize that we are publishing these episodes a couple of days late this week. This is due to an unfortunate and serious accident I had on July 8th. I am chronicling the accident and my subsequent recovery on our Tuesday and Thursday “Wisdom-Nugget” episodes for a couple of weeks. The segments published so far are Day 645, Day-647, and Day-650 if you would like to follow along with my saga of “Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way.”

I think that you will enjoy the story as we all realize that at age 60, there are still some hard lessons about life to be learned. One of the lessons learned is to make sure I follow the surgeon’s advice if I desire complete recovery.

Following advice is the focus of Proverbs 18 as we learn to:

Speak Less, Listen More

This chapter tackles a variety of diverse subjects, but the two repeated themes are listening and speaking. Turns out (surprise, surprise) these two things are related.

As I read through the text look for listening verbs such as “seek,” “hear,” “understand,” “acquire,” and “examine.” Notice anything? (Hint: The more you listen, the wiser you are.) Now, look through the text for speaking nouns such as “lips,” “mouth,” and “tongue.” We discover a compelling portrait of the fool — a person who hates to listen but loves to talk.

However, talking is not all bad! Look at verses 20 through 21. The wise man does not speak in haste; his words are nourishing. There is a beautiful metaphor in there: The fruit of a man’s mouth satisfies. Fruit cannot be produced quickly but is cultivated through time and care. Our words can be of great benefit, but only through the careful cultivation of listening (see verse 13).

As you move through these sayings of wisdom, meditate on how you can nourish relationships in your life by listening and speaking with care.Listen intently as I read Proverbs 18.

1 Whoever pulls away from others to focus solely on his own desires

disregards any sense of sound judgment.

2 A fool never delights in true knowledge

but only wants to express what’s on his mind.

3 When wrongdoers arrive, disgrace is right there with them,

for shame is the companion of dishonor.

4 Words bubble up from waters deep within a person;

a stream gushes from the fountain of wisdom.

5 It is wrong for a judge to show partiality to the guilty

or to rob the innocent of justice.

6 When a fool’s lips move, a fight breaks out;

it’s as if his mouth is begging for a beating.

7 The mouths of fools are their destruction,

and their lips entrap their very souls.

8 Whispered gossip is like a delicious first course:

it is devoured with pleasure and penetrates deeply.

9 Those who slack off at work

are no different from vandals.

10 The Eternal is known to be like a sturdy watchtower;

those who do right flee to Him for protection.

11 The rich think their wealth is their sturdy fortress;

they imagine it to be an invincible wall of security.

12 A proud heart precedes destruction,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 650 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Surgery, Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way – Wisdom Unplugged

 Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is day 650 of our trek, and it is time for the 3rd installment of a special series of stories that will chronicle my recent accident and recovery as we trek “Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way.”

This accident is a major life event that will change life for me for several months to come. In fact, I would say that it will certainly impact me for the remainder of my life. It is my hope and prayer that as I share that it will also positively impact your life.

I have often said, we must accept and live life as it truly is, not as we wished it to be. We don’t always know or understand what will become of the uphill climbs and treacherous downhill slopes that we encounter on life’s trek.

The key is to learn from these events and allow them to effectively become part of our living legacy which will positively impact our lives and the lives of all those who we impact. So for the next couple of Wisdom Nuggets episodes, we will look at...

The Surgery - Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way

First, for my faithful readers and regular listeners to my Wisdom-Trek Podcast and Journal, I want to apologize for the delay in episodes this past week. I will get caught up on all the days and get back on schedule as soon as feasible. If you would like to catch the first episode of this series, go to http://wisdom-trek.com/day-645.

I ended Day-647, which was my story of the Emergency Room, with surgery being scheduled for the next day after a fitful night of sleep for both Paula and me. With my broken femur bone in my left leg, I could not really move in my bed easily. The nursing staff was in every hour to check vitals, monitor my pain, and then draw blood early in the morning for labs. We also had a roommate move in around 2 am, so between all of that, sleep was minimal. Poor Paula tried to get comfortable in the reclining chair in the room, but that was difficult at best.

The hospital did provide a very good omelet breakfast, and we finished up a pre-surgery sponge bath before the family arrived that morning. Everyone was in good spirits and confident that there should not be any issues arise during the surgery.

At about 11:15 am they came and got me to prep for surgery. There were two nurse technicians that took me to the OR wing and connected me to all of the equipment needed for surgery. The admitting doctor stopped by to make sure there were no questions. The surgeon popped in to check on me, and then they let the family into the room for a few minutes.

We chatted and I said it would be great to get a nice long nap. Everything seemed to be running efficiently, and before too long the anesthesiologist walked in and said it was time to begin.

I kissed Paula and said my goodbyes to the remainder of the family members as they headed to the waiting room. The sleepy medicine was put into my IV, and they wheeled me off to the Operating Room at about 11:45 am. Within about 20 feet of the hallway, I was out like a burnt out light bulb. The next recollection I had was waking up in the same room, and as I looked at the clock, it was only 12:20 and thought to myself, "Wow! That was quick." My next thought was, "So much for a long nap."Within a few minutes of waking up, they wheeled me back to my hospital room where the family was waiting. The first thing I asked them was if the surgery was really that quick. They assured me that at most it was about 20 minutes.

During the surgery Marietta Memorial has a display board displaying the four steps of the surgery process ...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 649 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Don't Avoid Mistakes – Mindshift Monday

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 649 of our trek, and it is time for our Mindshift Monday series. Wisdom-Trek’s primary focus is to assist you in creating your living legacy.

Creating your living legacy can only be accomplished by gaining wisdom in many areas of life. You can only gain wisdom by changing what you allow to go into your mind which is a result of changing the way you think. In other words, to create your living legacy you must choose to be in a continual mode of Mindshift, or “changing the way you think.”

It is easy to get stuck in a mindset that your current circumstances cannot be changed. This is not true, but you must understand this fundamental principle, “In order to change your life, you must change how you think and what you think about.” Our Mindshift Monday podcast and journal will be to provide you practical ways to make a mind-shift to a rich and satisfying life. 

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. As mentioned in a couple of previous podcasts, I am podcasting and journaling the details of my July 8th accident and recovery on the Tuesday and Thursday Wisdom Nuggets. If you would like to follow along with me, the first episode is on http://Wisdom-Trek.com/day-645.

Even with an unexpected major life event, we continue to positively look toward the future and what we can learn from them. Our mindset is very important with every aspect of life. If your first inclination is to think negatively, then a Mindshift is required. You cannot get trapped by your current situation and feel there is no way to change it.

Last week I encouraged you to Imagine Life as It Could Be. Imagination is great and needed, but imagination without action is pointless. You need to take action. You might be thinking, if I take action, I will make mistakes. That is very true, you will. So on our trek today I desire you to have a Mindshift that will allow you to realize…

Don’t Avoid Mistakes

In most western cultures we try to avoid mistakes and failures as if they were some sort of deadly plague. This may be based on the Judeo-Christian foundations of our cultures and for many of us reinforced by our Christian upbringing. Somehow we have twisted mistakes and failures to be equated to sin, which is falling short of God’s standards.

While it is true that we all fall short of God’s standards and need salvation, we cannot allow our failures and mistakes to be equated to sin. If we do, we will avoid seeking a Mindshift, which is changing how we think and what we think about. We will be stuck in the same ruts day after day and wondering why our lives do not improve. While we should learn from our mistakes and failure, they are by their very essence the stepping stones needed to create a Mindshift in our lives.

Here are three common misconceptions that leave most people stuck in the ruts of life.

1. Believing that mistakes are always to be avoided.

The reason people try to avoid mistakes is that they feel they are a sign of failure or weakness. Mistakes can be and should be learning experiences. If you haven’t made any mistakes lately, I question whether you are really pursuing the change that you desire in your life. You have not explored all the trails that lie before you on your trek of life. Not all streams have been forged, and summits have been conquered.

We learn from our mistakes. A person cannot grow and learn without making mistakes. Sometimes they will be big, sometimes they will be small, but all the lessons learned will be in proporti...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 648 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Imagine Your Life Without Fear

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 648 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

For the next several weeks, we will focus how to live with less fear. We will explore the trails on our trek of life, which will help us to be fearless. This does not imply that we will reach the point where were are completely without any fear, though, for that is not only impossible, but also not wise. There is a time and a place for an appropriate level of fear, but most fear that we experience on a daily basis has no grounding and can be eliminated as we grow in wisdom, insight, and understanding. So our objective for these next several Fridays is to experience a FearLess Friday on our trek of life. Today is our first trail on our trek covering Imagine Your Life without Fear.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Hazel went back to Columbus Children’s Hospital on Friday, and her blood counts were back up into the range where they can continue her chemo regimen. During this phase, she will receive treatments in Columbus every 10 days. Nat and Elizabeth do not have to administer any medicines at home, and Hazel seems to be feeling pretty good. So we are thankful for that.

As mentioned on Wednesday’s trek, on July 8th, I suffered a fall from a ladder that fractured my upper femur bone. I am focusing the next few Tuesday and Thursday “Wisdom-Nugget” episodes sharing my story of the accident and recovery. The story begins with Wisdom-Trek.com/day-645.

A major life event such as this strikes fear into our hearts of how our lives will change or how it could have been even worse. Starting with this Friday’s episode on our Fearless Friday treks, we will explore why we are fearful and how we can live a fearless life or at least a life with less fear. The focus of our trek today is…

Imagine Your Life Without Fear

By nature, I am not a fearful person. I am usually confident and will boldly go where others may not. As I age, I realize that it is not so much the lack of fear, but the willingness to overcome that fear to achieve my goals and better utilize my God-given abilities that drives me. I try to focus on what can be accomplished by moving forward, rather than the scary “what-ifs.”

My recent accident is helping me to realize that while I desire to live a life without fear, I also need to weigh all of the potential outcomes, not only for myself, but also for those that love me. I am certainly not ready to end my living legacy. I am very aware of how much worse my accident could have been. Instead of fracturing my femur, I could have landed on my head or back, or the chain saw could have hit me or those that were helping me, all of which could have ended my life or the lives of others.

There is a twinge of fear when I think of those potential outcomes, mostly because I would no longer be here on earth to positively impact those that I love most. I cannot and will not allow this accident to prevent me from moving forward. As part of living a life without fear, I will be more prudent with the confident choices that I make and consider the outcomes from a much broader perspective.

It is my hope and prayer during these next several Fearless Friday Treks that together we can learn to move boldly forward, regardless of the obstacles that we may face. Together we can certainly learn from those fearful situations and then wisely make the choices needed to live...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 647 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Emergency Room, Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way – Wisdom Unplugged

 

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is day 647 of our trek, and it is time for a special series of stories that will chronicle my recent accident and recovery as we trek “Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way.”

This accident is a major life event that will change life for me for several months to come. In fact, I would say that it will certainly impact me for the remainder of my life. It is my hope and prayer that as I share that it will also positively impact your life as well.

I have often said, we must accept and live life as it truly is, not as we wish it to be. We don’t always know or understand what will become of the uphill climbs and treacherous downhill slopes that we encounter on life’s trek. The key is to learn from these events and allow them to effectively become part of our living legacy, which will positively impact our lives and the lives of all those who we impact. So for the next several Tuesday and Thursday Wisdom Nuggets episodes, we will look at...

The Emergency Room  - Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way

First, for my faithful readers and regular listeners to my Wisdom-Trek Podcast and Journal, I want to apologize for the delay in episodes this week. I will get caught up on all the days and get back on schedule as soon as is feasible. If you would like to catch the first episode of this series, go to http://wisdom-trek.com/day-645.

I ended Day-645 when the Devola Volunteer Rescue Squad was transporting me to Marietta Memorial Hospital with a neck brace and backboard in place. This was after I had gotten kicked off an extension ladder with a chainsaw in hand and landed on the cement walkway below. The EMTs gave me a low dose of morphine to offset the increasing pain in my leg. It seemed like quite a few minutes of prepping me in the ambulance before actually starting to move, but they were very professional, and I felt well taken care of. They also let me know when they were coming up on any rough segments during the drive, realizing that it would accentuate the pain.

We soon arrived at the emergency department of the hospital, where they wheeled me into one of the exam rooms. During major events like this, it is certainly interesting seeing the situation unfold from a first person perspective...From seeing myself being forced backwards from the ladder, falling through the air, hitting the cement walkway below, rolling to a seated position, seeing my leg at an odd angle, laying in the back of the ambulance to seeing the hallway ceilings and bright lights pass by overhead as I was wheeled into the exam room. The ER doctor and nurses needed to quickly assess my injuries, especially since I had the neck collar and backboard in place. As they connected me to the monitoring devices, they quickly became concerned with my low heart rate. I informed them that I exercised extensively and also ran 5-7 miles most days, and my resting heart rate was usually 48-50 bpm. You would think trauma like this would have increased my heart rate some, but other than the searing pain in my leg whenever it was moved, I felt a sense of calm.

Regardless of this, the doctor nor the monitor were pleased if my heart rate dropped below 45bpm. This especially became a concern at one point when it dropped to the mid-30s. For the most part, though, my heart rate remained around 50.

Since there could possibly have been neck and back injuries, they informed me that they would have to cut off the t-shirt I was wearing. I was wearing an old t-shirt from the days when we had our computer business and told them th...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 646 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Harmony And Restraint - Proverbs 17

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 646 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 17 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. If you are a regular listener or reader of the Wisdom-Trek Podcast and Journal, you may realize that we are publishing these episodes a couple of days late this week. This is due to an unfortunate and serious accident I had this past weekend.

I will be chronicling the accident and my subsequent recovery on our Tuesday and Thursday “Wisdom-Nugget” episodes for a few weeks. I published the first segment on Wisdom-Trek.com/day-645 if you would like to follow along with my saga of “Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way.” I think that you will enjoy the story as we all realize that at age 60 there are still some hard lessons about life to be learned.

Our granddaughter Hazel will return to Columbus Children’s Hospital for more bloodwork. If the counts are high enough, she will begin her next regimen of chemo treatments. If not, they will test her bone marrow again to make sure that it is continuing to produce the good cells needed for full recovery. Life is one of balance. Proverbs 17 describes it as…

Harmony and Restraint

The proverbs are so good! Check out the first verse in this chapter about household harmony, "Better to gnaw on a bit of dry crust in peace than to feast in a house full of stress." Solomon gets it – whether you’re a father, son, brother, friend, old or young, harmony is always more favorable than strife.How do we foster harmony? Because harmony comes from exercising restraint these proverbs really emphasize self-control. Look at the chapter’s design…The first 14 proverbs end with a compelling image about self-control – "Picking a fight is like leaking water from a crack in a dam, so walk away from an argument before the outburst." – while another 14 proverbs end with even more wisdom on self-control over our words. The self-control at the end is about how we use our words. Words can get us into a lot of trouble, and Solomon reminds us that less is often more.

Much of the wisdom in this chapter is directed at the fool, particularly the foolish son. It would seem from Chapter 17 that the household is the natural place where fools learn and grow. Let’s instead make our homes laboratories of wisdom! As I read Chapter 17, think about your home and how you can make it a place that embodies self-control.Listen intently as I read Proverbs 17.

1 Better to gnaw on a bit of dry crust in peace

than to feast in a house full of stress.

2 A wise servant will be put in charge of a child who behaves badly

and will take a share of the inheritance like one of the family.

3 Silver is purified in the crucible, gold in the furnace,

but motives of the heart are judged by the Eternal.

4 Wrongdoers perk up when listening to gossip,

and liars lean in close to hear talk of mischief.

5 Anyone who makes fun of the poor disparages his Maker,

and those who celebrate another’s misfortune will not escape certain punishment.

6 Grandchildren are the crowning glory and ultimate delight of old age,

and parents are the pride of their children.

7 Elegant speech sounds odd when it comes from a fool,

and a lie on the lips of a leader is even more out of place!

8 A bribe is like an enchanting charm to one who c...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 645 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Fall, Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way – Wisdom Unplugged

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is day 645 of our trek, and it is time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. Today we are taking a break from our normal wisdom nugget to update you and chronicle a major life event that will change life for me for several months to come. In fact, I would say that it will certainly impact me for the remainder of my life. It is my hope and prayer that as I share that it will also positively impact your life as well. I have often said, we must accept and live life as it truly is, not as we wished it to be. I guess I also must practice what I preach. So for the next several Tuesday and Thursday Wisdom Nuggets episodes, we will look at...

The Fall, Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way

First, for my faithful readers and regular listeners to my Wisdom-Trek Podcast and Journal, I want to apologize for the delay in episodes over the past couple of days.  I will get caught up on all the days and get back on schedule as soon as feasible.2017 is turning out to be a year of life-changing and very challenging moments for the Chamberlain family, as I have mentioned in several podcasts and weekly newsletters previously. On April 15th our granddaughter Hazel was diagnosed with leukemia.  This has been a life-altering event for the entire family, and her path to recovery is a long two-year process, with the potential for many twists and turns along the way. We are already realizing this as her immune system has been too low this past month for the normal treatment regime. I will keep you posted of her progress in the intro comments to our podcast as they become available.

This past weekend yet another life-altering event took place. Here is the beginning of my story that started this past Saturday. I enjoy working outside on the weekends, and this past Saturday was no different. The storms of last week brought down a sizeable limb near our house, and Saturday I was in the process of clearing it and cutting it up for firewood. I had previously asked my brother to also help me cut a limb from a tree in front of our house that was growing over our front porch.

When Jack and his grown son Rob returned from work, they came over to assist.  While I strive to be safe when using power tools, I did not fully grasp the dangers that are inherent when you mix a combination of a large chainsaw, an extension ladder, a fairly sizeable tree limb, and a cement sidewalk. As my mind has flashed back dozens of times to the events of Saturday, the foolishness of my task is now so evident.

I felt that two grown men steadily holding the ladder would provide the platform needed to remove the limb safely. It was not large in diameter, only about 4 inches, but it turned out to be longer than I realized.

I climbed the ladder with the chainsaw to a secure footing height of about 10 feet and began to cut it off.  We were nearly through the limb when it seized the chainsaw blade, which became wedged in place. Jack pulled the limb to the side while I freed the chainsaw and made the final small cut. None of us realized that when I finished the cut that the tension on the tree limb would kick the chainsaw backward propelling me, and the chainsaw, away from the ladder.

Although it is difficult to remember all the details as it happened pretty fast, I do remember that I kept the chainsaw away from my body as I rotated to my left. As I dropped the chainsaw safely away from myself, Jack, and Rob I had rotated to where the left side of my body was parallel to the ground, but there was also a cement walkway,