Got Discernment?

When I was younger I always felt a bit awkward and out of place, not only because I wore glasses and had extremely bucked teeth, paired with the fact my father being a pastor with the icing on the cake. With my parents being in the business of people as pastors my sister and I were constantly surrounded by people which ya girl able to see people and things on a deeper than just the surface level.

This is why I believe it is important to listen and watch to your children, they often have the ability to see what adults rush past, reading the hearts of people. Now that I am older I realize that what I was walking in was discernment. Simply put I was able to see the complexities of a situation and people. It’s similar to what people now say as reading a person’s energy.

Growing up at church we would have hour prayer one day of the week. During these times of prayer I would pray for wisdom and discernment, a quite mature prayer for a mature kid. Blame it on being around my aunts, uncles and grandparents most of my childhood.

I’m not sure why wisdom and discernment was my prayer at age but it was. Now that I look back on it honestly I am thankful it was my prayer it guided me through a lot of situations through my young and adult years. Simply put wisdom is the ability to apply the knowledge you gain, discernment is the ability to see the complexities of the situations you may find yourself in.

I remember being offered a position that I honestly felt was too much for me to handle. The project included many moving parts, different personalities to handle, keeping my humility and perspective in check was high priority for me. I felt like Solomon in the Bible who asked God for wisdom to know how to rule the people of the land. His prayer was to know how to go in and out among the people he was in charge of. This moment pushed me closer in the direction of prayer of more wisdom and discernment.

You can have the wisdom to know it wouldn’t be safe to go running in a rough neighborhood at 2am, discernment gives the insight when a person is attempting to pull wool over your eyes so they may advance in some way shape or form. I have been in so many situations where both wisdom and discernment have walked hand in hand. As any person does in life I have overlooked and disregarded wisdom and discernment in so many situations. In hindsight I realized both wisdom and discernment were calling out to me in various situations. I overstepped these principles I realizing it was only when I came back to them I was able to truly navigate my life’s situations.

Throughout my relationships, friendships, career moves, and business deals along with many other things we come face to face with in life, I realize now more than ever the importance of both wisdom and discernment. In society now we often hear the prayer of being successful, getting money, or traveling the world. There is such small mention of the things we don’t see with the naked eye character, integrity, peace, contentment for the sake of the conversation, wisdom and discernment.

What I have realized over the years is discernment often allows you to see the intentions of people and or a situation. Discernment is what is learned over the course of time through experiences to gain insight. Discernment is the navigation tool to people and situations.

We can often find ourselves situations where we need to make not just a sound judgement, we need to make a decision where the situation has been run through our spirit of discernment. Our discernment has to be paired with our wisdom.

Maybe you are facing a situation where you are attempting to understand the workings of the full picture. Your prayer should lead you to request wisdom and discernment so you can see deeper that just the surface.