What’s the most underrated life skill?
I have no statistics to prove what the most underrated life skill is. But consider this Chinese proverb: “Endure for a moment and the winds calm, the waves settle; step back and the ocean opens wide.” This is more than a skill — it is a matter of the heart’s willingness to receive wisdom.
The proverb calls us to shift from primitive survival instinct to conscious decision-making. Yet knowing does not equal doing. The inability — or unwillingness — to pause between impulse and reaction is not a skill deficit. It is a heart condition.
In my lifelong career, conflict and dispute were daily fare. Wherever disagreement arose, I learned to step back, choose my battles, and live and let live — against offending emails and thorny issues alike. This kept me from firing back and kept annoyance from boiling over.
Fortunately or unfortunately, our fast, digital age makes it hard to slow down or step back. Ungraded, unchecked knowledge is now accessible to everyone through digital devices. Whether we use it comes down to choice — and choice flows from the heart.
Then who can guard the heart?
Scripture says: You (Proverbs 4:23). But how? Follow the Holy Spirit — for God grants spiritual strength and discernment to those who ask. He gives believers a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). Yet this is no passive surrender. We guard the heart; God secures it. Our part is to keep watch at the gate; His part is to supply the strength and tools. It is cooperation with grace — divine empowerment working through human willingness.
I follow the Holy Spirit. I hold the gate of my heart, and God provides the strength to keep it secure. Yet this truth is often underrated, underheard.
May the poem below shed light on your pursuit of wisdom — rather than skill — in life.
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“Who Does Not Obey”
(A Meditation on Wisdom and the Heart)
You do not heed my words — that is disobedience.
I heed your words — that is not obedience.
Foolish words measure the human heart.
A wise heart does not reckon foolish talk.
Words of wisdom stir the human heart.
A foolish heart, its spirit sealed, its soul blocked.
O Wisdom — bid me dwell in the light of the spirit.
O Understanding — bid me seek knowledge and counsel.
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