Foolproofing Your Life Quotes

“When wisdom is pure, Barclay explained, it is “cleansed of all ulterior motive.” It won’t be devious, always looking for a way to glorify self. When it is peaceable, it will “produce right relationships,” if possible. That isn’t always possible, but when wisdom is in charge, at least there is potential for healthy relating. When it is reasonable, wisdom “gives a man the right to forgive when strict justice gives him the perfect right to condemn.” You may have biblical permission to hold on to “strict justice,” but if you do, you erect another barrier to what God, in his mercy, might do in the situation. When wisdom is gentle, it is “willing to listen, willing to be persuaded, skilled in knowing when to wisely yield” and when to wisely stand firm. When it is full of mercy and good fruits, it will “offer mercy to any man who is in trouble, even if he has brought that trouble on himself.” (Even if he is a fool!) “We can never say we have truly pitied anyone until we have helped him.” But we must have the wisdom to understand what true help really is. No doubt, you have tried to help your fool, but if help is not motivated by godly wisdom, it can be deadly. When wisdom is unwavering, it is “not hesitant and vacillating; it means that it knows its own mind, chooses its own course, and abides by it,” Barclay wrote. And, he added, wisdom without hypocrisy “never deals in deception for its own ends. It is not the wisdom that is clever at putting on disguises and concealing its real aims and motives.” Note that the goal of seeking wisdom is not making your fool into a better person but rather making you into a healthy, fully functioning, godly person.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“God’s wisdom has a particular set of characteristics. James 3:17-18 describes those characteristics this way: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (NASB).”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“Nabal’s My Name; Foolishness Is My Game.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“One of the first “things as they are” facts you need to learn is that it is impossible to correct, change, alter, redefine, censure, sweet-talk, or reason with a fool. Let me say that again: It is impossible.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20). It is interesting to note that the word for companion in that verse means “a special friend,” or one who “grazes in the same pasture.” The word for fools is our classic definition “those who are stubborn, dull, arrogant.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“A fool’s lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating. A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul” (Proverbs 18:6-7).”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“A person who can bear no challenge and who lets you know it by her behavior is an angry individual.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“Naive, simple people can be wise in some areas, even quite successful, but emotionally and spiritually they are dispossessed. I know some professional people who are brilliant in their fields. They make wise business choices, but when it comes to relationships, they are exceedingly naive and simple.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“Foolish acts are common, but if we are fortunate, they don’t cost us more than a few dollars, a little inconvenience, or a mild scare. We will act foolishly sometimes just because we are human. There is a group of people, however, who seem hard-pressed to learn the lessons that most of us learn when we do something unwise.”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life

“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. (Proverbs 18:2)”
― Jan Silvious, Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life