understand the best

The search for the best continues.  You visit places of business, often places to eat, that have signs on the wall that tout “voted best in town” or the like.  What is often best we cannot agree on.  One person likes chicken and another prefers seafood.  Both think their choice is best.

I recently said in several sermons and quoted here something that rings in my head almost every day: “we must learn to say no to good things so we can say yes to the best things”.  This was discussed last night among a few friends that I greatly appreciate.  The best things are the ones we cannot buy, that still cost us a lot and have to be fought for the hardest.  Does that make sense?

The only way I know how to characterize this is using what I read yesterday.  It made good or best sense. 

Scriptures from Proverbs 19 (New Living Translation)

1 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity 
Than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.

8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; 
He who keeps understanding will find good.

11 A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, 
And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.

17 One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, 
And He will repay him for his good deed.

23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, 
So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.

That’s too much for me to talk about each.  Yet when we understand what is best, we will cherish things that last.  Each verse talks about how we deal with and believe in God.  They talk about how we deal with other people.

I get angry when I see people look down on others.  That’s when God has to test my heart and my motives.  When I treasure what God treasures, I chose the best things.  My prayer is that we will want what God wants and understand what is best.