Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.  I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.  When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble (Proverbs 4:10-12).

Think about a child who is just learning to walk.  She's slow and unstable.  She falls often.  Sometimes, she abandons the idea of walking all together and goes back to crawling... until she's ready to try walking again.  Learning to walk is a process that takes time and practice -- but it's a worthwhile process.  The whole family typically joins in the process, offering encouragement and acknowledgement of each little step, faltering though they may be (at first).  Sometimes a father will allow the child to grasp his pinky fingers as a sort of guidance and support in the final stages before independent ambulation.  And when the first steps happen, it's often just for a meter or two into the open, welcoming arms of the child's mother.  The occasion is celebrated as a tiny military conquest.  Territory is conquered, and over time the territory expands considerably.  At first, it takes maximum effort and concentration for minimal results.  But with practice, toddling turns to walking, and walking turns to running and jumping and skipping and dancing.  It's a remarkable process to observe, even though it's happening every day -- someplace or other.  Life-long skills are being learned and applied.

Wisdom actually works much the same way.  Moral discernment starts out very small, under the watchful eye of loving parents.  With time, however, it grows and develops and becomes a life-long skill that adds both quantity and quality to our lives.  That being said:  it is a skill that must be cultivated!  If the moral compass is not stimulated and properly calibrated, it will not be able to develop.  (The same is true, by the way, with walking; I once knew a mother with mental illness whose son was unable to walk at age three, simply because he had never been encouraged to give it a try).  Unfortunately, this drive for teaching and learning wisdom doesn't seem to be as universal or as instinctive as the drive for teaching and learning how to walk.  But when a person embraces the life of faith and experiences the benefits of the Holy Spirit inside his or her life, then the way of wisdom becomes increasingly clear.  It still takes a lot of patience and practice -- particularly if the person never had the benefits of family or friends stimulating and supporting him in that direction earlier in life -- but it is a worthwhile process.  And over time, toddling turns to walking, and walking turns to running and jumping and skipping and dancing.

Isaiah 40:28-31 describes this process beautifully, echoing and amplifying the words of Proverbs 4:10-12.  "Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.