Monday morning, I was planning on going salmon fishing on the Alsea River. I was going to get up at 4:00 am so that I could get dressed, brush my teeth etc, eat some breakfast, and fill my thermos with coffee. Patty put the coffee pot to start automatically at 4:00 am. Sunday, I blogged about my birthday, and Sunday evening, my daughter in Hawaii read my blog and realized that she had forgotten my birthday, so she quickly called me. It was 8:30 pm their time and 11:30 our time. Because I was getting up at 4:00 am, I went to bet at 8:00 pm. When my cell phone rang at 11:30 pm, I woke up and thought my alarm was going off at 4:00 am. So, I got up, got dressed in my fishing clothes, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom, ate some breakfast, and then went to pour the coffee into my thermos, except that it hadn’t been brewed. I went back into the bedroom and asked Patty, barely awake from all my noise getting ready to fish, why the coffee wasn’t brewed. She said, “Because I set it to brew at 4:00 am, it is now midnight.” I looked at the clock, and sure enough, it was midnight. How did that happen? I looked at my phone and saw that I had a missed call from Sally and that my phone alarm was still set to go off at 4:00 am. So, I took my clothes off and went back to bed. It seemed like the alarm went off 30 minutes later.
 
Has that kind of thing ever happened to you? There isn’t much you can do but laugh and tell others about the dumb thing you did so they can get a good laugh as well. It is nice when you make a blunder, and it doesn’t cost you anything but 30 minutes of sleep. Most mistakes have a consequence that is more severe than that. Wisdom is knowing the consequences of bad choices and the blessings of the right decisions. When we genuinely have wisdom, the awareness of the fruit of our actions, good and bad, steers our choices in life. Wisdom comes into the heart of the person who seeks it diligently and prays for it constantly. Being a good learner from our experiences and the experiences of others is a significant way wisdom enters our hearts. I also read one chapter in Proverbs every day as part of my strategy for pursuing wisdom.