What’s between your ears?
Proverbs 1:5 – Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.
A father told his young son, “God gave you two ears and one mouth—that means you should listen twice as much as you talk.” He added, “He also put a big blob between those ears—it’s for you to hold onto knowledge, not mush.” He was doing his best to give similar instruction to his child as that given by God in today’s verse.
Real hearing takes time. You must focus and pay attention, listening both to what was and wasn’t said. As you listen, psychologists say, your mind “catalogs” what you have heard, extending your abilities to recall. Then the degree to which you have understanding depends on how what you have learned gets encoded in your mind. Psychologists say it is like a continuous process in your mind of going back and forth among words, concepts, elements, references and ideas. So what’s between your ears truly is a lot more than mush if, like any other muscle in your body, you are taking the time to exercise it!
Pray With Us
Dear God, sometimes I must admit that I let things like the wise sayings in the book of Proverbs just glide through my mind without paying real attention to them. I’m not learning. In this election season, help me to listen with the goal of real understanding. You have given me Your Word. Help me process what I am hearing against the precepts you have laid out, then guide me in making wise choices. My confidence is in You, Lord.
Amen.
