Saying 12

Apply your heart to instruction
    and your ears to words of knowledge.

Proverbs 23:12

They say that knowledge is power, and to a certain extent, this is correct in our world. The ancients had an ethic that went beyond just knowledge, for as we see in this verse, and in a great many before in Proverbs, instruction is equally emphasized. The thought is that to obtain knowledge, we must be instructed in the things we seek to learn. By extension then, we also must put all our effort into learning the thing on which we are being instructed.

I remember back in my college days, there were a great many students, first-year Freshmen, to be exact, who managed to gain admission on this or that waiver, either with a free ride, or well off parents covering their bills, who were not there as Sophomores because they partied through their first year and were no longer students in the University.

We must apply our hearts to learning, for it doesn’t just happen by osmosis.

Those wise ones back in the day who generated these sayings were wise indeed.