Learn as you go

"If you lack wisdom, 

ask of God who gives liberally"

James 1:5

My Awesome Girl taught me something about art today.  She's a wonderful artist; she draws and paints, and most of the photos you see on this blog are hers.  She was sketching this morning, and I said, "What's that?" pointing to one specific part of her drawing.  It didn't seem to fit in with what the picture was going to be.  But she explained it was part of something else.  "I draw that there, and then I can do this, and this and then it looks like this."  She did a few more pencil strokes, and then combined them all to create part of the overall picture.

I've never been a very good artist, so these few simple pencil strokes of hers amazed me.  I told her how clever that trick was, but she quickly responded that she'd learned it from the Apple of my Eye (also a wonderful artist).  She's a very modest girl, but even so, she seemed to not want to take credit for this small technique.  She was almost embarrassed at the idea of taking credit for something she'd learned from someone else.  But I reminded her it didn't make much sense for her to ascribe the idea to her father, when really, he'd learned it from someone else, and that person learned it from someone else.   Heck, I'm my kids' teacher, so if people were required to give credit every time they shared some knowledge, then my kids would be saying my name all the time!  "George Washington was the first President of the United States, and I know that because my mom taught me when I was four."  But no one does that, of course.

That's because once we learn something, that knowledge belongs to us.  Whether you gained your wisdom at Princeton, or the University of Hard Knocks, it is yours.  Now of course, you can give credit, and never stop appreciating those who taught you, but the knowledge you gain is all, ultimately, a gift from God.  After all, the brain, the opportunity, and the memory all come from Him!  And that's one of the things that I love about education ~ any kind of education ~ is that no one can ever take it away from you.  You can't unlearn something.  You can just learn, and then learn some more.  And that's especially true of Biblical wisdom!  And then you can take that knowledge, and use it to bless others, and bring Him glory.  How smart is that?    :)

~ "The fear of the Lord 

  is the beginning of knowledge" ~

Proverbs 1:7