This past Sunday, I opened up my sermon with 2 different ways of learning.
1) You can take someone with experience’s word for it.
or
2) You can learn the hard way.
The Bible teaches us to take advice and instruction from people. Especially from those who have gone before us and know better than we do. And the Bible teaches us that to not take instruction is foolish.
Proverbs 8:33 “Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.”
Proverbs 1:7 “fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
One thing in my life that I regularly seek after is older men who will help me. Older men that clearly know more than me and have experienced more than me. God has given me several of them, and I am so grateful for that.
This week I was speaking with one of them. And I was telling him how much I need older men who are willing to invest in me…. Invest their mind and experiences with me.
Here is what he said.
“Experience finds itself wasted on old men.” Wow! That is true. In other words, experience is only good if you give it away. Experience only has its value when it is given away.
I had never heard that before. It is sticking with me.
If you do not have older people mentoring you, please go find one today. Simply go to someone you admire and ask them to give you advice for life regularly. And at the same time, be looking for a younger person that you can share all your knowledge and experiences with.
Or else, it will be wasted.
(I am 30 years old. The men that influence me with simple life lessons are 58, 58, 75, 80 & 81.)