By Larry Stover
The Selma Times-Journal

Have you noticed that life seems to be much more complicated these days?  We are bombarded with options.  Making decisions surely causes brain cells to explode or die.  In the midst of the complications of life, we have to make decisions on a regular basis.

Sometimes we over-process the situation.  We all like to break down our budget before making major purchases.  On the other hand, if we analyze the “what-ifs” and consume our time with them, we can become more confused than ever.  If we add to them the “maybes” and the but-thens” we might become paranoid over a decision that went from requiring a short amount of time into a monumental mountain moving major stressor in our lives.

Scripture talks about the gift of discernment. It is a wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it allows one to read a situation so as to avoid problems that are brewing within. Other times it gives insight into a problem that does not appear on the surface. Still, other times we sense a solution that others never seem to grasp in the initial stages of problem solving.

To an extent, all of us have some amount of discernment. While it is definitely a gift for some, most of us develop this ability to one degree or another. I like to look at it as a three step process.

The foundation is knowledge.  Information is something that we acquire, or should acquire, all the days of our lives. This basic foundation is largely acquired by attending school throughout the formative years of our lives.  Looking back over my life, I see where a good liberal arts education is beneficial to us all. Whether at the high School or college level, it is the beginning of understanding “discernment.”

For those of us who love to read, we have discovered the fountain of knowledge that comes from the printed page. Whatever means of obtaining knowledge you choose, it is the first phase of learning to discern.

The second phase is what I like to call “wisdom.” We all know people with wisdom. We like to hang around them to listen to their stories and insight. Wisdom comes from a life-long process of acquiring knowledge and processing that knowledge to make our lives better. Wisdom goes beyond intelligence. It is about making good judgment calls based on perception and an understanding that comes from learning to process knowledge into something beyond the cold hard facts.

Those observations lead to the third step. It is discernment. It involves taking all that knowledge, allowing it to mature into wisdom, and finally using it all to discover that we have an uncanny ability to make decisions when others are floundering in uncertainty.

The more you learn the basics and process of discernment, the more you realize life is “simply beautiful.”