The Moments We Don't Capture With Pictures

by Lysa Terkeurst

"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2 (NIV)

Some moments of life are amazing. Beyond amazing. They create blessed memories of sheer joy.

Then there are other moments, the ones not often discussed, the ones when we feel like complete failures. Those are the moments that taste bitter, not sweet. The ones that won't make it into a scrapbook of fun memories.

It's in those moments we wonder if we really have what it takes to do the assignments placed before us. Yes, those kinds of unglued heart moments aren't the ones we capture in pictures. But there's a silver lining in those moments, a compassionate kind of wisdom I can't get any other way.

Wisdom is our silver lining. Wisdom will help us not repeat the mistakes we've made but rather grow stronger through them.

How do we find it? We come to the Lord and ask Him for it. We set aside our excuses, our habits and our justifications and whisper, "I need Your perspective, God. I come before You and humbly admit my desperate dependence on You." As Psalm 11:2 reminds us, "with humility comes wisdom."

Yes, humility.

But wisdom can also come from times of humiliation.

Remember King David? He had an affair with a married woman named Bathsheba. When Bathsheba sent word to David she was pregnant with his baby, he panicked and had her husband killed. Then David quickly married Bathsheba.

David's choice brought calamity upon his house, and the son born from the union with Bathsheba died. Sin and consequences always walk hand in hand. And David surely suffered the consequences of his choices for years to come. But mixed in with the heartbreak and the humiliation, something else happened. When the repentant David went to comfort Bathsheba, she became pregnant with Solomon.

From this relationship wrapped in humiliation came the man the Bible describes this way:

"God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite — wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. From all nations people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom" (1 Kings 4:29-34, NIV).

Did you catch that? Solomon was wiser than anyone else!

In a situation that seemed unlikely to produce a hopeful outcome, God was faithful. From humiliation, great wisdom came.

Humility and humiliation, silver linings that can lead to wisdom even in the midst of the moments we don't capture in pictures.

Dear Lord, I praise You for Your guidance. Meet me where I am today as I face moments that I don't want to capture with pictures, Lord. Give me Your strength to learn from each struggle and situation. In Jesus' Name, Amen.