September 7

Wise Judgment

…people of understanding know their priorities.


Proverbs 17
27 A man of knowledge uses words with restraint,

and a man of understanding is even-tempered.

Elias had not slept well. He woke on the roof of his house in a sweat. There had been no breeze, a donkey had brayed throughout the night and his head ached. Besides, the pressure at his small pottery business was extracting a toll on his patience.

It was just the day before that he had wounded his own son with a long litany of invectives because the youth had broken a large amphora. Taxes, competition, failing business and years of hard labor had deposited sand in his temperament and left him short on delicate familial sensitivities. That is why he had lost his patience and hurt the pride of his life.

His son was not the only one to suffer the edge of his wrath. His wife, friends and even his neighbors were part of a growing list of offended ones. Elias knew he had to get his focus once again on the things that are important in life. He knew better and had forgotten what he knew. He had once understood people are more important than pots and determined to never lose his understanding again. He had accounts to settle and apologies to give and this would be the deal he would strike before he laid a hand to the wheel or fired the oven of the kiln. He was a man of understanding and people of understanding know their priorities.

Where was he to begin? He knew that people are like his pots. When you make a mistake in molding you address a problem early. Sometimes you even stop what you are doing and start all over again. When things have gone on long and the clay has hardened the potter does not fire it in the kiln with more fire. You rebuild. You take the time to reconstitute the clay and reshape it on the wheel. Yes, he thought, people are like pots or....or pots like people? “It doesn’t matter!” he spoke out loud and his resolve shocked even him. “I have to address the problem…all of the problems. Let’s see…where to begin? Oh, yes.”

He closed the shop, dropped the latch and called to his son. “Come, Bartholomew, let us take a little walk. I have some friends to visit today. After that, we will make some beautiful amphorae!”