Prudent

When I was in college, we had a snack shop that was called, “The Happy Corner”.  That was my hangout.  Come to think of it, my hangout should have been the library.  But that’s another story for another day.  The Happy Corner had a short-order grill with hamburgers, grilled cheese, and fries.  But Tater Tots were the specialty.  With enough ketchup, they were great!  But the best part of the Happy Corner were the chess games that were available.  I was pretty good at chess but got beaten as many times as I was victorious.  A dear friend, Joe W., was always just a little better than me.  It seemed like Joe knew what my next move was going to be.  And he was always several steps ahead of me.  Often, I would see (or so I thought) where he was careless, and I would take one of his vulnerable pawns.  But he had moved another piece into position to take the piece that I had used to take the little pawn.  Joe would sacrifice a lesser piece to capture a more valuable piece.  Joe used what the Bible calls “prudent”.  Prudent means cautious or acting with self-restraint.  Solomon said in Proverbs 14:8, “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.”  What a great bit of wisdom for today!  If we would live our lives with foresight (like playing the game of chess) and plan ahead, we could avoid many of life’s dangers.  Hey, take a moment and look ahead.  Think of things that should be avoided today and things that need to be attended to.  Plan ahead … be prudent.