Pearls

A friend of mine posted these thoughts on her blog today:

I learned yesterday that a string of pearls (given me by my mother 30 years ago) are real saltwater pearls ... and worth a bit of money. I learned how to take care of them and have put them away until another day.

This knowledge brought my thoughts immediately to the line of thinking on pearls of wisdom ... how much more important are those, received from God's word, than even a valuable string of real pearls? Very much more valuable to me. Sixty-two pearls on a string can't measure up at all, in fact.

So, do you have any pearls of wisdom to share with me today?

Here are my thoughts:

One of the first things I thought of when reading this was the idea that so often we realize later in life all the valuable saltwater pearls that our parents, and others, gave to us. We often take in pearls of wisdom from those who are more mature, not realizing their full value, thinking of them as merely nice, or maybe even a gaudy encumberance or old fashioned notion. Why do we wait to look - really look - at the pearls of great price that we have been given? We put them aside and don't care for them properly, and - how awful! - some of us even know those who have taken those wonderful pearls and given or thrown them away.

I can appreciate the fact that you want to put these physical pearls away until another day, but I do pray that we all wear the pearls of wisdom that we have every day. Maybe June Cleaver had the right idea after all!