Proverbial Wisdom

INTRO.- ILL.- Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn’t find the problem. So Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life--but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted carmaker inquired why the bill was so high.

Steinmetz’s reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990. Ford paid the bill.

I would say that both Steinmetz and Ford were smart men. Steinmetz for knowing how to bill for his services. And Ford for paying the bill because I’m sure he learned a valuable lesson.

ILL.- Someone said, “You don’t have to be listed in Who’s Who to know what’s what.”

Education is a great tool, but so is experience. I’ve seen a few educated ignoramuses in my time. And I’ve also seen some very wise men who never went to college or never graduated.

We never stop learning in life. If we do, we will die. At least, we will die intellectually, and perhaps morally and spiritually.

ILL.- One Sunday, a cowboy went to church. When he entered, he saw that he and the preacher were the only ones present. The preacher asked the cowboy if he wanted him to go ahead and preach.

The cowboy said, "I’m not too smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I’d feed him." So the minister began his sermon.

One hour passed, then two hours, then two-and-a-half hours. The preacher finally finished and came down to ask the cowboy how he had liked the sermon.

The cowboy answered slowly, "Well, I’m not very smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I sure wouldn’t feed him all the hay." SMART COWBOY.

ILL.- Now here’s a story about a girl who was not very smart. MADISON, Wis. Audrey Ruth Seiler is a college student accused of faking her own kidnapping last month was charged Wednesday, April 14th, with lying to police in what they suggested was a desperate attempt to get her boyfriend’s attention.

Audrey Seiler, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of obstructing officers. Each charge carries up to nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Seiler disappeared from her off-campus apartment March 27 without her coat or purse. She was discovered in a marsh four days later, and told police that a man had abducted her at knifepoint.

But police concluded Seiler made up the story after obtaining a store videotape that showed her buying the knife, duct tape, rope and cold medicine she claimed her abductor used to restrain her.

According to the criminal complaint, she broke down under questioning from police and said: "It just got so out of hand. I did not mean for it to. ... Everybody did so much for me."

Hundreds of people from Madison and Seiler’s hometown searched for her after she disappeared, and her claim about an armed man touched off a major manhunt that authorities said cost the police about $96,000.

The criminal complaint depicts Seiler as a young woman upset by a fading relationship with her boyfriend, Ryan Fisher.

Friends said the two had been fighting, and Seiler’s roommate, Heather Thue, told officers that Fisher did not pay as much attention to Seiler as she wanted. Seiler’s mother told police her daughter had not been herself lately and was "extremely needy" of Fisher.

I would say that young woman was not too wise in what she did. Now she may pay for it.

Brothers and sisters, there is a place where we can get our “smarts” or wisdom, and that’s the Word of God. And, of course, the book of Proverbs contains great wisdom for today.

PROP.- Let’s consider more proverbial wisdom.

I. KINDNESS

11:16-17 “A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth. A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.”

ILL.- It’s a crisp winter day in San Francisco. A woman in a red Honda, Christmas presents piled in the back, drives up to the Bay Bridge tollbooth. ’I’m paying for myself, and for the six cars behind me,’ she says with a smile, handing over seven commuter tickets.

One after another, the next six drivers arrive at the tollbooth, dollars in hand, only to be told, ’Some lady up ahead already paid your fare. Have a nice day.’ The woman in the Honda, it turned out, had read something on an index card taped to a friend’s refrigerator: ’Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.’ The phrase seemed to leap out at her, and she copied it down.