Is your pace hurting your progress?

Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. “I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day,” he recalled in his book Stress Fractures. “Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.
“I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, ‘Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin’ and I’ll tell you really fast.’
“Suddenly realising her frustration, I answered, ‘Honey, you can tell me – and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.’ I’ll never forget her answer: ‘Then listen slowly.’”

“if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
— Proverbs 2:1–5

The kind of wisdom Proverbs 2 speaks of is not shallow insight or clever strategy. It is a deep, God-given discernment that directs the heart and guides the hands.

Proverbs 2 gives us a pattern that can really help us as leaders to get better at wisdom. It offers us these 3 strategic actions

Turning your ear — Staying open and teachable. Making space to hear God’s voice above all the noise—ambition, goals, busyness, and everything else that tries to drown Him out.

Applying your heart — Letting it sink in and actually shape who you are. Wisdom grows when what you learn moves from your head into your heart producing Godly motives and choices.

Searching for it like silver — Going after wisdom with real intention, the same kind of drive and focus you’d give to something truly valuable. This isn’t a passive process; it’s an active pursuit. True wisdom is costly — it listens, it asks for humility, attention, and perseverance.

When we turn our ear to God, we lead from His counsel, not our cleverness.
When we apply our heart to understanding, our leadership becomes compassionate, not controlling.
And when we search for wisdom like silver, we discover treasures that sustain us rather than drain us.

Nowhere is wisdom more beautifully embodied than in the Christmas story. Consider Mary — young, humble, and chosen. When the angel announced God’s plan, she didn’t rush to control or question everything. Instead, she pondered, prayed, and prepared. “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

Mary’s wisdom was not the wisdom of the world — it was the wisdom of quiet trust. She embraced God’s will even when it made no sense. She prepared for the birth of Jesus not with worldly power, but with wonder.

Leaders today can learn from her posture. Wisdom often whispers rather than shouts. It comes in stillness, in surrender, and in the willingness to say, “Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

As we approach Christmas, and in this season, turn your ear. apply your heart. Search for wisdom like silver. In doing so, you’ll find that your leadership — and your life — will be grounded not in fleeting insight, but in divine understanding.

The greatest gift you can bring to those you lead is not perfection, but wisdom — the kind that comes from walking closely with the One who is Wisdom incarnate: Jesus Christ.