Don’t you love those short, pithy statements that make you laugh or that start you because they are so spot on?

I remember seeing a bumper sticker on a car in the Walmart parking lot in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Inside the car were two adults and more children than you could imagine finding a seat in the vehicle. On the back bumper was this message: If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it ought to be enough for the IRS.

A simple message on a sticker on the back window of a car I saw here in Austin a couple of weeks ago read merely: I Miss Bill.

Courtesy opens more than doors… these words were on a sign in front of an elementary school down near Atlanta.

Bumper sticker statements—the really good ones–can be a version of proverbs, those short sayings we have heard all our lives. Proverbs teach us a bit of wisdom in a short space.

Wisdom has been defined as “the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. It has virtually nothing to do with information as such, with knowledge as such. A college degree is no certification of wisdom—nor is it primarily concerned with keeping us out of moral mud puddles, although it does have a profound moral effect upon us.” Wisdom is concerned with “living on this earth—living well, living in robust sanity.”

This morning, thinking about bumper stickers and short bursts of wisdom, I turned to an ancient source of proverbs in the Hebrew Bible. In a book in the Hebrew Bible–called simple “Proverbs”–are wonderful gems that let us connect the holy to the ordinary.

Here are a few things I read:

Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight,
A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.

A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
A simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

Just as water mirrors your face,
So your face mirrors your heart.

The purity of silver and gold is tested by putting them in the fire;
The purity of human hearts is tested by giving them a little fame.

Malice backfires;
Spite boomerangs.

But the proverb I read this morning that really stirred me was this one:

Know your sheep by name;
Carefully attend to your flocks;
(Don’t take them for granted;
Possessions don’t last forever, you know.)
And then, when the crops are in
And the harvest is stored in the barns,
You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool,
And sell your goats for a profit;
There will be plenty of milk and meat
To last your family through the winter.

I suppose I was stirred by this proverb (Chapter 27, The Message interpretation) because I want that kind of progression in my own life: to work hard, attend carefully, work to get the harvest stored. And then I would like to knit sweaters from lambs’ wool and know there is plenty of milk to last through the winter.

Isn’t it marvelous that wisdom has nothing to do with time? The statements above are as true today as they were thousands of years ago. And they will be true tomorrow and the next century (if we human beings live in such a way that there is a next century on our beautiful planet).

It is good to revisit ancient truths and solid, practical advice. I’m glad that is where my heart and eye went this morning.

Love,

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Dr. Elizabeth Harper Neeld offers wisdom and practical insights to anyone whose life is in a time of transition, change, grief and loss of any kind. As an internationally recognized and accomplished consultant, and author of more than twenty books - including Tough Transitions and Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World - she is committed to work that helps lift the human spirit.