Quotes About Discernment

It made me understand that we don't always get to decide what we let in and what we keep out. A door is just an idea.

One must use caution in sharing secrets or drawing others into a confidence. Be certain a friend possesses the skills necessary to remain silent.

winnowing of history,

Listening to things that are not true is the first step toward ultimate bondage and death. That

avenues—television, magazines, movies, music, friends, malls, and catalogs, to name a few. A steady diet of these worldly influences will shape our view of what is valuable, what is beautiful, and what is important in life.

But the "best" lies are those that look the most like the Truth. The "newest" lies are the oldest ones.

Millions of professing Christians are deceived; they are walking in ways that simply are not biblical. Their values, their responses, their relation ships, their choices, and their priorities reveal that they have bought into the lie of the Enemy and embraced the world's way of thinking.

listen for the Lord's will in everything; and don't lean on your own understanding.

In every field, Christians must learn critical thinking skills. Otherwise, we may simply absorb idol-based philosophies from the intellectual atmosphere.

In today's pluralistic, multicultural world, no one can survive long on secondhand ideas. Some Christians seem to think the way to avoid being "conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2) is by avoiding "worldly" ideas. A better strategy is to learn the skills to critically evaluate them.

If you think you already know what you're looking at, you might not see what's really there.

the highest among us aren't always the wisest,

Balance was interpreted, it seems, as giving equal weight to both sides, rather than giving accurate weight to both sides.

It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.

When your opponent is making a mistake, do nothing to interfere.

Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.

If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don't do it. It does not mean that one reason is better than two, just that by invoking more than one reason you are trying to convince yourself to do something. Obvious decisions (robust to error) require no more than a single reason.

Things always become obvious after the fact

They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)

We're not that much smarter than we used to be, even though we have much more information - and that means the real skill now is learning how to pick out the useful information from all this noise.

You may be an idiot but I don't think you're a fool.

A sixth sense cannot make up for a total lack of common sense.

Es posible que no te sientas cómodo lidiando con los problemas de la persona o con la forma en que se relaciona contigo. Puede ser demasiado controladora o manipuladora para ti. Asegúrate de que el Señor haya enviado a esa persona y de que no estés asumiendo más de aquello para lo que estás preparado.

Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment—that which they cannot anticipate.