FAT

Being a FAT Christian

Paulette Fraticelli

(Prov 9:7-9 GNB) If you correct conceited people, you will only be insulted. If you reprimand evil people, you will only get hurt. Never correct conceited people; they will hate you for it. But if you correct the wise, they will respect you. Anything you say to the wise will make them wiser. Whatever you tell the righteous will add to their knowledge.

In our last message Lady Wisdom gave an open invitation to the ignorant and the foolish. No matter how ignorant and no matter how foolish a person is Lady Wisdom is convinced that if she spends enough time with them, she can get them on the right path and lead them down the right road. I was both ignorant and foolish before I came to God and I am eternally thankful that Lady Wisdom was patient with me. I came to God with a pretty rough background and I thought I knew what life was about, but in retrospect, I didn't have a clue. The United States has a great education system, but no school that I know teaches a class on life. However, churches all over the US and the world are teaching people daily how to live the lives that God intends for them to live. The first thing Lady Wisdom is looking to do is to teach you Life 101. After she gets the basics out of the way, she can share life-lessons with you that will keep you on course for the long haul. That's what she does in this passage. Let's seek to glean a few nuggets: 1. Reserve correction for those that can take it: If you attempt to correct someone who thinks they know it all, they will not only reject the correction, but they will hate you for attempting to correct them. 2. Correcting the right people helps all parties involved: If you correct the wise, not only will they get wiser, but they will respect you for caring enough about them to correct them. Your correction of them will help them to make the course corrections they need to make, to stay on the path God wants them to take. Additionally, they will have an elevated opinion of you, because you were the tool God used to provide the correction they needed. 3. Be a F.A.T. Christian: When I became a Christian my Pastor taught me that I needed to be F.A.T.; which stands for: Faithful, Available, and Teachable. The arrogant person in our text is not teachable. Be wary of the person that will not receive instruction or correction from anyone. That person has become the god of their own lives and they will soon find themselves spiraling out of control. If there are two things I have learned over my 10 years of Christian life, they are: 1) there is a God and 2) I am not Him! Father, I thank You for taking the time to document Your wisdom in a book that is made available to me. When I read the Bible I get to sit down, one-on-one, with Lady Wisdom and I am thankful for it. She teaches me and I listen. I am faithful, available, and teachable. She is the sage and I am the apprentice. She leads and I follow. She gives me pearls of wisdom to share with others and she leads me concerning whom to share them with. She uses me as the conduit through which God provides correction and instruction to others and we all benefit from it. Use me Father, today, for Your glory! In Jesus' name. Amen.