Carpe Diem

This phrased originated in 1786.  It is a Latin phrase which means “enjoy the day,” literally “pluck the day” (while it is ripe).  Today, we interpret the phrase to mean seize the day. This is our thought for the day from the book of Proverbs.

“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee” (Proverbs 4:5 -9).

We see three things in this passage that we should consider about seizing wisdom.

We should seize wisdom or pluck or harvest wisdom.  It is there for us and we must go out seeking it.  We must be in the fields looking and searching for it and God says with that attitude, He will reward us.

Second, once we have wisdom, we should not set it down.  We must make use of it all the time.  Once it is in our minds, heart and life, let’s make use of this valuable tool.  How silly of us to have a tool to make our lives much simpler and safer and we ignore the tool that can provide this simplicity.

Third, we need to make wisdom supreme.  Again, this is God’s wisdom and not man’s wisdom.  These are two distinctly different types of wisdom.  Man’s wisdom brings man to the forefront and wants accolades thrown at the feet of man, but God’s wisdom brings God to preeminence.  The latter is the wisdom we desire. We want a wisdom that is from above.

Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller

“We can do anything we want to do if we stick with it long enough.” —Helen Keller

When Helen Keller suffered an illness that made her blind and deaf, she gradually adopted animal instincts in order to survive.  That is how teacher Anne Sullivan found Helen when she arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to teach the child. What transpired next was a clear example of tough love, leadership, and discipline.  Sullivan literally had to fight Helen and attempted to communicate with her through the sensation of touch, the only real sense the youngster still recognized. Week after week, Anne pressed her hand into Helen’s, making symbols with the positions of her fingers against Helen’s palm.  She was spelling out words, but to Helen, it made no sense. When Helen finally understood the relationship between the word “water” and the patterns pressed on her palm, Helen remembered, “I was caught up in the first joy I had known since my illness.”

Anne was tough on her pupil.  As soon as I knew right from wrong,” Helen wrote, “she put me to bed whenever I committed a misdeed.”  The story of Anne and Helen has become an American wonder, as the physically challenged girl eventually grew up to be one of the brightest minds of her time.  Helen became a communicator and a symbol of the power that people have to rise above difficult circumstances, but she did not (could not) do it on her own. Anne Sullivan demanded that her pupil learn beyond all expectations and gave her love and fulfillment in return.

– copied from A Daily Dose of the American Dream.