Mercy’s Designated Driver

(Proverbs 2:11 KJV)  Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

“Discretion” (4209) is not wisdom.  It is not personified.  It is interesting to me that the definition of the word has an evil taint to it.  I think that might be because of the hard choices it demands.  If you look back the discernment involved is built up by training and grown into.  It is a mark of maturity and a trait that the immature do not understand.

It is also a trait that people focused on certain gifts of the Spirit have a hard time with.  To the person who is saturated with the gift of mercy, discernment seems to be some alien harshness.  To the gift of service it seems like the epitome of selfishness.  That is because maturity demands hard choices and many people do not want to make them.

So?  If you are a mercy person understand that the Spirit also gives discernment.  Just because you run on empathy, discernment is fueled by clear thinking.  We need both but my feeling is that the modern church is rejecting the hard choices.