Apply Avidly

(Pro 23:12 KJV)  Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Translators.  You got to love them.  You got to hate them.  You got to have them.  I guess the alternative is to spend years studying Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.  Notice the word “apply” (935).  The basic meaning of the word is “to come”.  It also means “to go”.  Go figure.  The Greek has a similar word, the first word I learned when taking Greek, erchomai.  It also means to come and to go.  I think the basic idea is to change your position in relation to something.  This is the only place that it is translated “apply”.  On the other hand it is translated “come” or “came” over 1,200 times.  So lets do a Pumice Pathetic Paraphrase and say this should start,

(Pro 23:12a PPP) Charge toward discipline,...

That is not the usual way we approach it.  We avoid it as much as we can.  Maybe that need to change.

So?  Some skills will never be learned unless we avidly apply ourselves.  I am sorry but in spite of what educators may tell you, all learning is not fun.