Being Responsive to Correction

Here's another counter-cultural message in the book of Proverbs: listening and being responsive to feedback, advice, and correction.

Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life,
but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

Mockers resent correction,
so they avoid the wise.

Plans fail for lack of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed.

Whoever heeds life-giving correction
will be at home among the wise.

A rebuke impresses a discerning person
more than a hundred lashes a fool.

To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame.

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge,
for the ears of the wise seek it out.

This is such a counter-cultural message right now because, I don't know if you've noticed, you can't tell anyone anything anymore.

In an age of radical individualism and living your "own truth" we've lost the personal and cultural capacities to listen, accept correction, and seek wise counsel. And we're extraordinarily fragile in the face of receiving even the slightest bit of negative feedback about ourselves. We bristle or fall to pieces if corrected or critiqued.