The Love of Wisdom

Posted by: L.E.S. on: September 8, 2014

• In: Everyday Life | Faith | Family | Parenting
• 1 Comment

If riches are a desirable possession in life, what is richer than wisdom who effects all things?

~ Wisdom 8:5*

With a return to classes come opportunities to learn in many ways.

In kindergarten, students learn to make friends, to share, to be curious about the world beyond their family and neighbourhood. As they progress through the grades, they learn to express themselves through art, writing, music, dance and drama; to understand how math and the sciences affect our world; to see the impact of geography and history; and so on.

As theories of education come and go, we see changes in the curriculum, in the way subjects are taught or emphasized, in our understanding of how students learn. What doesn’t change is the importance of wisdom and our need to recognize God as its source, as we see in Wisdom 7:17-20:

For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,

to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;

the beginning and end and middle of times,

the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,

the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,

the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,

the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men,

the varieties of plants and virtues of roots . . . .

Our children and youth will learn in school, through extracurricular activities, at Mass and youth group meetings, and through their relationships with family and others, but they need guidance to apply what they learn. We need to pray that God would grant them wisdom, that they would want the blessings that flow from it, and that they would share their wisdom with others—and we need to pray the same for ourselves.

I learned without guile and I impart without grudging;

I do not hide [wisdom’s] wealth,

for it is an unfailing treasure for men;

those who get it obtain friendship with God,

commended for the gifts that come from instruction. (Wisdom 7:13-14)

As the school year gets under way, I pray that we would encourage our children and youth to pursue wisdom and that we would also look for opportunities within our school, parish and wider communities to share what we have learned.

We can also look at continuing education courses for ourselves…

(*Scripture quotes taken from the Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.)

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Tags: Catholic, Christian, faith, God, knowledge, religion, students, wisdom