Advantages of Wisdom

Eccles. 7:11-12

11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

• Which is more important: wisdom or inheritance? Why?
  - Which appears to be more important to those under the sun?
  
• How is wisdom protection?
  - How is money protection?
  - How does wisdom preserve its owner's life?
  - How effective is money at preserving its owner's life?
  
• Which do you find your self striving for more often: Wisdom or money?

Harold's Musings:
Being sick is not fun. How's that for an obvious piece of wisdom? For the past week, I've had a very bad cold. So bad that I stayed home from work Friday and Monday. People at work thought I had to be in the hospital to miss two days of work. When I'm sick, I am not very wise. I cannot think straight or my thinking is as least fuzzy. I hope this is clear enough. Maybe I'll be more clear tomorrow.

Worry is Dangerous

Philip. 4:6-7

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

• Why do you guard things? What do the things you guard have in
  common?
• What does anxiety do to your heart and mind?
• How does thanksgiving influence our worry-related prayers?
• Where in life do you turn to God?
• after your plans fall apart
• when all is lost
• when you can do no more on your own
• after you have given it your best shot and failed
• before the plans, during the worry, after the peace comes

Harold's Musings:
I can quote this passage, but I continually struggle to do it. Pride, American self-reliance, whatever the "reason", it is still a struggle. While I see the command in verse 6, the motivation for me is in verse 7. My worry puts my heart and mind at risk. I think about the previous post where worry is mentioned immediately before the devil roaming to find someone to devour. When worry is strong enough, I (perhaps you also) turn to something for comfort. Too often it is not God. The key to this seems to be pray about the little things all day long. Pray about things that I truly can take care of on my on. Let praying about the little worries build up a coating on my heart and mind, layer after layer after layer. Then when the big struggle hits... No worries, mate. :-)