A Wisdom Year

We received an email from a recent guest and in that email our friend sent us the wish that 2018 would be a "wisdom year" for us.

A wisdom year:  I wonder what that means exactly.  We certainly do need wisdom about any number of things right now.  We need God's wisdom to help us research and start planning for retirement just in case it sneaks up on us earlier than we are currently planning.  We need wisdom to know how to deal with some health issues.  We need wisdom to know how to best take care of family who are all so very far away from us and how best to be in contact with them over the coming year.  We need wisdom about holiday travels.  We need wisdom about monthly finances.  We need wisdom to know how best to start planning a life apart from the more than full time job my husband has right now.  We need wisdom to know how to best pursue a more fulfilling and static church life and community.  We need wisdom to know how to improve and deepen our current friendships locally. We need wisdom to plan annual study leaves and work travels. We need wisdom to know how best to hear and obey God about these and other things we don't even yet know we are going to need wisdom for.

Wisdom, discernment, listening, obedience...they are all tied up together.  I suspect 2018 may turn into a year of decision making for us about some things in our lives.  To do that we need wisdom.  We need to know how best to discern wise courses of action in our temporal and spiritual lives.  We need to discern how best to listen to God's direction, how to be certain it is him we are hearing and the best ways to obey what we are being told by him.

Our friend certainly has us thinking, that is for sure, as we prepare to usher in a brand new year!  Someone asked me today what my goals are for the new year and I think learning what is wisdom will be a huge goal!