How to Get Good Godly AdviceНамуна

Day Five - Learn to Listen

It’s so important that we don’t just seek out good advice, but also listen to it and act on it. The thing about being accountable to someone is: you have to be accountable to them. Too many times I’ve seen Christians run away from the advice or the advisors God placed in their lives simply because they got advice they didn’t want to follow.

There’s just something about us humans—sometimes we have to try things for ourselves and learn our life lessons the hard way, don’t we?

I remember one time when I was just a little tyke, maybe five years old, I learned a lesson the hard way. My dad owned a hardware store, and he used to keep razor blades in his desk drawer, the kind used in box cutters. One day when I was looking in his desk drawer, I picked up the carton of razors and looked them over. They were individually wrapped. I guess that made them seem like chewing gum to me because they just looked so interesting.

My dad saw me and said, “Don’t ever take those out of the cardboard and touch one, OK? They’re really sharp.”

“OK,” I answered.

But from that moment on they fascinated me. I walked away but just kept thinking about those blades. I really wanted to unwrap one. I just had to know how sharp they were!

So when no one was looking, I slowly opened the drawer and gingerly took out a blade. I turned it over in my hands, then carefully took the blade out of the sleeve and, ran it right across my finger to see what would happen. To my horror, the skin split wide open, blood started pouring out, and it hurt like the dickens!

Of course, my dad came into the office right then. He grabbed my finger to stop the bleeding. Thankfully I didn’t need stitches, but as he was patiently washing and bandaging the cut, he asked, “Why did you do exactly what I told you not to do?”

Why, indeed? What is it about us humans that we don’t want to take advice—especially good advice that will help prevent us from doing stupid things? Learn to listen and follow the godly advice that God sends your way!