"A fool is quick tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted" (Proverbs 12:16).

Here is an entry culled from the early years of packing sack lunches.  It goes like this:

"A fool is quick tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted" is the verse I wrote on the children’s napkins this morning for their lunch sacks.  To an extent it is true that we feed on what we read on, but by the time I had copied this verse on the fourth napkin, I was digesting it.  It has been said that enough is as good as a feast…it seems that I needed a four-course meal! Indeed, through morning tasks and rushed responses, twice I felt insulted and twice I reacted, not calmly. 

The Word of God is like a seed that best sprouts when hidden in the heart.  Is foolishness also hidden there?  God will compost it, and the sprout will do what sprouts do best—provide concentrated nutrients to those who eat them.  They are live food, cleansing and complete.  So, too, is the Word of God to those in whom it sprouts.  

This is good news, children!  No more sprout sandwiches on sprouted bread, broccoli sprouts with dip, and clover sprout cookies (is there even such a recipe?) in your lunch sacks!  But read your napkins and hide the living Word in your hearts.

No doubt God used my foolishness this morning to awaken my appetite for His wisdom.  I read the napkins and supped on sprouts.