Corrections For Life Series

Now I'm not speaking of destructive criticism but loving correction. There is a great difference between destructive criticism and loving correction. But where the mind of Christ is mutually exhibited in wise loving reproofs that are humbly given and received, it builds a bond of affection. May our church be blessed with those that love us and want God's best for us.

Let's do a little self reflection here. If your attitude toward being corrected or criticized is, "Nobody's going to tell me what I'm doing wrong," you probably fit the description of the "scoffer" (9:7-8). Anyone who tries to correct you will risk being despised or hated by you. On the other hand, if you consider the correction of a wise person who rebukes you, you are "wise," according to Proverbs 9:8, and you will love that person.

By nature, we don't like to be told we have done wrong. I have had to resist feelings of anger and wounded pride on more than one occasion when someone pointed out to me that I was in the wrong. [You may have had similar experiences.] But later I was glad I held those reactions in check and listened because what was said actually helped me.

Verse 9 tells us that it is far better to invest our energies on the teachable for when you show them where they are wrong they appreciation and esteem you for it. "Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning."

By being teachable a wise and righteous person becomes still wiser. The wise realize that they are not too wise to learn nor so good that they cannot be better so they avail themselves to opportunities to be faithfully taught.

Those that begin to accumulate a storehouse of wisdom form a nucleus around which more will gather, like a small island in a great river continues to receive particles that add to its mass. The floods of winter deposit soil on it. The sun of summer covers it with vegetation and incorporates the accumulated new soil. Wisdom from above once received in the soul creates a place where all things work together for the good of its possessor.

A number of years ago an article was written about CANCER RESEARCHER Dr. Robert Good. He was described as a hard-driving individual with an enormous faculty for new ideas and the ability to make use of any information that came to him. I was most impressed, however, with a statement that credited him with a willingness to recognize an error in his theories and abandon them faster than anyone else in medical research. An associate said, "Dr. Good [love that name] never gets married to his hypotheses, so he doesn't go through the pangs of divorce when one is proven wrong."

Notice again as elsewhere in Proverbs that a wise person is a righteous person. Wisdom is not merely an intellectual power, it is a moral quality or character. The wise are not self-willed or self sufficient but with great receptivity embrace instruction and make use of every opportunity to improve their moral character. The teachable take in "instruction" like necessary nutrition and become stronger and stronger by it.