If

"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;"

Proverbs 2:1-2 ESV

I am a forty-year-old man. By all appearances, I am a grown-up. I don't have to finish my dinner so that I can have dessert. I can eat my brownies and ice cream at any time I please. In fact, if I want to go back for seconds, I can do that too. I can walk into my doctor's office for a check-up, and when he tells me that all my numbers are out of whack, I can keep on moving down the path I am on anyway I choose. 

The truth of this all is that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. But, there are no free lunches and if I don't listen to sound and wise counsel, there will be consequences for the things I choose. I can hear the truth, but simply hearing the truth and actually receiving it are two totally different things. 

The keyword from the verse I referenced above is the word "if." This word has the power to change your story and the course of your life forever. If you are like me, when you read the verse I referenced above, you probably blew right past it and never considered the impact it can have on your life. But this word sets the tone for everything that follows after it. "If you receive my words," is just like saying "Hey bro, I am not telling you what to do but if you will slow down and listen for a minute, I may save you some trouble."

The older I get, the more that I begin to realize that where I am is where I want to be and where I want to be is nothing more than a series of choices I make to get there. I make those choices one at a time and I make them based on whether or not I choose to use the wisdom afforded to me in that given moment. 

Hearing and receiving are two entirely different things. If I am wise, I listen to what God is trying to tell me and those that He places into my life when it is time to make an important decision.