Episode 004: Seeking Wise Counsel

I surround myself with wise counsel, some of it’s free, um, perhaps through my husband, family members, mentor programs, pastors and other Christian friends that I’ve just built relationships with over the course of many, many years. Some of it’s not free. It’s in the form of things like coaches or special training or classes. Even the professors at my, at the university that I study at my administrator certificate, they’re not free. I’ve got to pay for those. I’ve got to pay for some books as well. Along with that, so not everyone that I surround myself as free. It would be awesome if that were the case, but that’s not life. So I surround myself with many, many different counselors and when I’m listening, listening to counselors, I sit and I listen. I’m not seeking agreement or validation of my plan. Instead, I’m looking for their perspective, resources, maybe some experience and definitely if they haven’t some good godly advice, oftentimes I’ll ask clarifying questions when I’m having a hard time understanding or receiving the council. Sometimes the council isn’t wise, so I move on. Not everyone will agree with you or me or with each other, and that’s why I believe the Bible says that you have to have a multitude of counselors. It’s important also to pick the right counselors. Now, someone who is sharing information with you that contradicts the Bible is probably not the best counselor for you. It’s not wise advice if they’re specifically contradicting what is said in the Bible, but you want to pick a mix of counselors that have some experience in the area that you’re growing. People that are close to you as well can be helpful. Some of them may not be helpful. I mean, it really just depends on your circumstance, so definitely seek to find people that maybe have some great expertise in what you’re working with and couple that along with people that know who you are and if you can find those that have good godly advice, maybe mentors that you look up to, surround yourself with those types of people as well. It’s always important to listen to what people are sharing, especially if you’re seeking their advice. Don’t, Oh, don’t talk over them. Don’t let them finish their sentences, let them. If you’re going to seek advice, especially if it’s free, you will, even if you’re paying for you, you want to listen to it. Anytime you’re seeking help; it’s always important to stop and listen to hear what they have to say. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to take the advice. Again, it is just advice. Oftentimes when I’m talking to people, one person will say one thing and another person will say the other thing, and another person will say something different, and the good news is that it’s up to you to decide. You get to choose when, when you are working on that one thing that the Holy Spirit has called you to look at to investigate and changing in your life.

You get to make the decisions because this is your life. So if somebody is telling you, you must do something. Now there is an exception to that rule. I mean, if, if you were, if you do rely on Jose, your appearance, if you’re staying with them and they’re telling you that you must clean up your room, well that’s not. We’re not seeking advice there. That is something that someone is telling you to do because you’re staying with them at their home. Right Or if you’re in a partnership with somebody and you have an agreement, well that’s an agreement. It’s not the same as wise counsel. Why is cancel is when you have a question, or there’s something you’re struggling with, and you really need some help to solve it, and so you go off to you ask questions and you ask people to give you their expertise, their opinion or their, their thoughts in that would be the council that I’m talking about here.I’m not. I’m not talking about you know, things that you were supposed to be doing anyway. This is you seeking out some assistance and then listening to the assistance that is given to you. Now that doesn’t mean that you have to fulfill on. That doesn’t mean you have to take whatever someone says as the ultimate truth. I would encourage you to open up your Bible and make sure that whatever someone’s telling you don’t disagree with what the Bible says is true, I would encourage you to do that for sure, and then you should check whether or not that person who’s telling you that advice, are they telling it to you because it’s great advice for you, and it’s relevant for you and your life and it’s relevant to the conversation at hand or they telling it to you because they have some experience and they’re coming from a place of knowledge that is specifically related to their situation, so never just take advice just because it’s given to you.

Always look to see is what the person’s saying to you. Relevant Is it good advice Is it specific to your situation Is it in the Bible a, does it contradict the Bible, and I always say anytime someone’s given me advice that contradicts the Bible, I or I automatically don’t. Don’t include that in my list of things to think about Iowa. I believe the Bible is full of truth and anytime I’m faced with a situation, the first thing that I go to is the Bible, and hopefully, I’m able to find my answer. I would say the majority of the time in my life, anytime I’ve had questions or face situations, there’s always been a promise for me in the Bible. There’s always been something for me and the Bible, even if it’s not specifically what I want to hear or what I want to see. Sometimes God likes to reveal to me things that I don’t want to hear and sometimes I just have to hear. So surround yourself with good wise, cancel, and then discern whether or not you’re going to implement the things that, that wise counsel is telling you to do. So as you go along and consider the things that you’re going to be implementing for your best year, you want to ask yourself, who is the right person to talk to Who for, for whatever area, you’re going to be focused on who’s the right person for this area You might need Let’s, for example, you might be starting a business and you might need an SEO expert, so you might go seek SEO, help that search engine optimization, and you might seek out a web guy, or he might seek out a youtube expert, or you might seek out a Pinterest expert and then at the same time you might also talk to your pastor about your ideas, especially if it relates to Christian living, or you might seek out your spouse for some of his or her godly advice. Or you might seek out your an expert in the specific area that you’re in. If you’re a fitness person and you might go and seek out someone who’s already doing what you want to do in that space, so who think about over the next week until we meet again, who are you going to look at or consider in Write a list of people down that you need to consult with and definitely have some people that have expertise in the area that you have questions on and then also seek out people that have godly advice and people that know you. It would be great if you could find, you know, everybody that you talked to had some really great godly advice. Not everybody will and that’s okay. Just listen to the advice to see what it is they have to share with you. Thank them for sharing it with you and pay them if you’re going to pay them. If it’s part of the offer, you want to pay them for further work. If it’s free, I will encourage you to thank them in some way, maybe coffee or bring them dinner or something. I don’t know. That’s entirely up to you. I always think it’s so lovely when people take time out of their data to counsel me. I’ve had many mentors in my life that I love and cherish and still continue to seek their wise advice today. If you are curious about how to approach somebody that you don’t know, the first thing is to just introduce yourself. Just talk to them and get to know the person before you, you know, ask for for a favor, unless of course, you’re buying it and then you can give him the money and then learn what you can. But in war, especially in the, in the work environments where I’ve worked in or when I’ve been looking for a mentor for my career as an example, as an example, it would go up to the person. I would get to know them, I would, you know, make sure that they were someone that I wanted to learn from and then I would ask them, hey, are you willing to mentor me for maybe once a month over the next 12 months It’s really important to give them timeframes and, and things like that to come to an expectation and agreement on that. So as you’re putting together your list to make sure that you’re approaching people in a very respectful and loving manner, asking them to help you by providing this wise counsel and you’ll be surprised. A lot of people, so many people are willing to give their expertise and advice. A lot of times for free now, if there is someone that is charging for their advice, that’s awesome to you, people have to make a living and so it’s important to, to pay for some, some advice if that is an area especially, um, where there’s someone that you just know is just an expert and you just want to learn from them.

I would encourage you to look for people in your space that are like that and pay for the services because that’s how they feed their family. And, um, if you think that they are amazing at what they do and you want to learn from them, why not support them Right Why not give them the things that they need to provide for their families and provide for their life. I have not regretted a so far whenever I have entered into an agreement with either a mentor or a coach or even a doctor’s office, whenever I’ve had advice. Not all the advice I’ve been given is good advice, but I’ve always listened, and I’ve always learned, and it’s always helped me grow. So I hope that this helps you grow as well and gets you farther this year where you want to go. The Bible has a lot to say about who you surround yourself with, and I encourage you to find the best counsel for this season that you’re in, and if you don’t yet feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. You’re not promised tomorrow, and I would encourage you to not put it off. Romans6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of their Promises of God Podcast. Goodbye now.

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