Listening for the Sake of Doing

You never forget your first "firsts" with your first child. The first look. The first diaper change. The first feeding. Their first word. Their first step. I'll never forget the first doctor's appointment we had with our first child. 

It was a few days after coming home from the hospital. My wife and I were running on very little sleep. Some of that was due to getting up with our daughter in the middle of the night. 

But some of it was due to my racing mind. When our daughter was asleep, I couldn't get my mind to turn off. I kept thinking about the weight of responsibility in keeping this precious little girl alive. If anything were to happen to her, it would all be our fault.

So, at that first doctor's appointment, I was all ears, and I came with a laundry list of questions. How do we develop a sleep schedule? How important is that? How will we know when to feed her? What if she doesn't eat? What if she overeats? What if she gets sick? How do we know when we should take her to see the doctor? When can we have her around other people? What's the right way to swaddle her at night? What if she rolls on her stomach in the middle of the night? 

The posture I had that morning in her office reminds me of what's in the book of Proverbs about developing wisdom. 

Throughout the book, there is a repeated emphasis on listening. 

But it's not listening for the sake of being polite or respectful. It's not listening motivated by curiosity. It's listening for the sake of learning. But even more specifically, for the sake of implementing what the person you’re listening to tells you to do. 

As I went through my list of questions, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, taking copious notes on my phone. I was completely dialed in to every word coming out of our pediatrician's mouth. I was listening intently, ready to do anything and everything that she said.

Proverbs 8:33 says, "Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it."

Proverbs 1:8 says, "Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching."

Proverbs 12:15, "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice."

The assumption of these verses (and the twenty-some others like them) is that the listener and reader would actually DO the things the teacher or parent is saying. 

At some level, being wise isn't about having brilliant insights into the meaning of life. It's about tapping into the knowledge and respecting the experience of those who are further down the road from you and doing what they tell you to do. 

It also requires humility. It means you have to be willing to admit that you don't know it all and that you could use some help. 

Unfortunately, sometimes humility only develops when we are desperate because we have failed too many times on our own.   

So perhaps a true mark of wisdom is the ability to humble yourself before you ever try to go at it on your own and reach out to those who have been around the block a few times to see what they have to say. And then, heed their advice. Trust their experience, and do what they say. 

Maybe then, as it says in Proverbs 4:10, "the years of your life will be many."