Me and My Fiancé Conquer the World

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 15:12-22

When I was in college, I loved playing RISK, a board game in which your objective was to conquer the world. A game of RISK could take all night long if you played it right and I had a group of friends who enjoyed playing it quite often. When I got engaged, my fiancé and I went on a camping trip with some of those friends and, among other things, we played a game of RISK. There weren't enough spots for all of us to play as individuals, so we decided to pair up. Naturally, I was paired with my fiancé. Now, without trying to sound too bragadocious, I am a pretty darn good RISK player. As it turns out, so was my fiancé.  Together, we were AWESOME. So awesome, in fact, that my friends banned us from ever playing together again. Between the two of us, we didn't miss much and our strategies were extremely effective. On those rare occasions when I missed an important detail, she would notice it and call it to my attention and I did the same for her. With all due humility, we were very difficult to beat because the two of us could see the problems of the game much clearer than either of us could on our own.

Proverbs 15:22 reads, "Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisors bring success" (NLT). Very often, especially in our individualistic Western society, we try to do everything ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I believe that being able to carry your own weight and being able take care of yourself can be a very good thing. But we are clearly better when we don't rely solely on our own wisdom. When we find a wise person we can trust for advice, who can provide a beneficial outside perspective, our plans are much more likely to succeed or to succeed far beyond what we might have achieved on our own. 

While I was very good at RISK on my own, having someone else who could give me advice (or to whom I could give advice) created an even better competitive force to be reckoned with. Asking for advice is not something we should fear. Asking for advice is something we should do intentionally, knowing that our plans will succeed more rapidly because of it. As smart as we may be, we are always smarter with a wise counselor at our side.

What important decisions do you need to make? Whom have you sought out for advice? If you don't have any wise counselors, now is a good time to find a few.