James quotes this proverb to rebuke some Christian traders who were boastful and overconfident in their ambitions, and concludes: "You ought to say – If the Lord will, we shall live and we shall do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance" (James 4:13).

The wise man does make plans for tomorrow, but recognizes his mortality and so commits them to God. Do we plan for tomorrow, with God’s blessing? What mistakes made today can be avoided tomorrow? What have we neglected today? What new initiatives might be taken tomorrow?

What plans should we make just in case we are not alive tomorrow?

The theme continues. We all like to be appreciated, but do we crave recognition so much that we have to praise ourselves? Is the boastful man in the previous proverb simply trying to elicit admiring comments and bolster his feelings of self-worth?

Appreciation and recognition help people feel valued, as they should be. Do we give generous praise for a job well done, or simply correction when mistakes are made? Praise is one of the tools of the effective manager and parent.

The wise and mature man finds his satisfaction in making a contribution that is worthy of praise, whether or not he ever receives any.

The theme continues. It is nice to be praised, but sometimes we receive provocation and abuse instead, which is all the more annoying if it comes from a foolish, rude person.

Stone and sand are dense, compared to wood, for example, and manhandling them in any quantity requires a lot of physical strength. Do we have the emotional strength to bear up under a load of unwarranted provocation? The wise man will endure it, and still get the job done. Perhaps Solomon is implying also that in the day to day job of getting things built and accomplished, such emotional burdens are as common as builders’ sand and bricks.

The theme of interpersonal relations continues again. Here, in place of the open expression of praise or abuse we encounter the hidden enmity of jealousy.

Are we aware of jealousy, and alert to the conditions that may provoke it? Can we defuse it by sharing success, by giving generous praise to other people rather than hogging recognition for ourselves? Are we aware of the emotional hunger of others, and willing to help satisfy it?

Are we driven by feelings of jealousy ourselves? Does it affect our behavior? Is jealousy an emotional deficiency disease? How can it be cured?

The theme continues. What good are love and admiration if never expressed? If someone deserves praise and recognition, why not give them their due? Do we have to wait until they are dead before we deign to eulogize them?

Can we make a habit of expressing love and appreciation, for children or adults? Even a rebuke from an enemy may help us become a better person, but hidden love does us no good at all.

The theme continues. It is a sad paradox perhaps that more love may be expresses by our enemies for ulterior motives than by our friends who simply take us for granted and do not bother to express their affection.

If we fail to express love for our children, might they fall prey to the false "win friends and influence people" tactics and "love bombing" of those who would wish to exploit them for evil ends?

The senses become satiated by excess. Likewise people can become insensitive and unresponsive to excessive praise and also criticism. Can we administer praise in judicial amounts at just the right time?

Will success dull our sense of appreciation and destroy our motivation? How can we retain a sense of true value for the good things in our life that we may be taking for granted and neglecting?

Perhaps the theme continues. Do we value our home, family and friends, or do we take them for granted? How many young people leave home in search of a better life, not realizing how blessed they were at the beginning?

Are we over stretching ourselves in some way? Are we wandering foolishly into unfamiliar, uncharted and dangerous territory? Are we exposing what we have worked hard to create to needless risk? Are we neglecting our core business as we search for exciting new initiatives?

Why does a man wander? Might he be searching for the answers and understanding that have eluded him at home because the deeper issues of life are never addressed?

If we are troubled, do we seek support from trusted friends? Do we open the metaphorical bottle of sweet-smelling perfume that is available to us, or do we keep problems bottled up inside ourselves? Are we afraid to go beyond the trivia of small talk, and discuss our real feelings and matters of hearty concern?

As parents, do we leave young people to cope with life’s enigmas, their own emotions and inner conflicts alone? Can we make these matters topics of conversation?

Do you value friendships or neglect them? What about family friends from way back when? Your parent’s friends will be older and probably far wiser than your own. They are a valuable asset, and almost certainly ready to offer sound advice, support and encouragement. Do you respect the wisdom and experience of older people?

Do you cultivate new friends, especially amongst your neighbors, or do you tend to be anti-social and too independent for your own good? Do you think you are too busy?

Do we consider the impact of our actions on other people, especially parents? Do we also honor their friends, and appreciate their potential value to us, as we saw in the previous proverb?

A mentor is an older and wiser person who makes his experience freely available to a younger person. How can you find a suitable mentor? Can you be a mentor to someone younger than yourself? Does your business, school or college need a mentoring program?

The prudent man constantly looks ahead, like a careful driver. He watches out for trouble ahead and takes evasive action.

The wise man plans ahead, but the simple minded person just hopes for the best and carries on as normal. Do you plan for your future financial security? Do you save money for emergencies? Are you preserving your health or destroying it? Are you heading for serious health problems because of a bad diet and a lack of exercise?

How will your business cope with changing social trends, new regulations and competition? Do you devote serious time to forward planning, problem identification and brainstorming for innovative ideas?

The theme continues. A prudent man recognizes the risk of doing business with a stranger and insists on having a third person as a guarantor, and also takes a security deposit. He foresees danger and protects himself by having a standard security procedure to follow.

Having identified risks, what steps do you take to protect yourself against them? At home, do you have a smoke alarm, for example? At work, do you have risk assessment procedures in place to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment? Do you undertake preventative maintenance? Are your properly insured? Although fire fighting is always an urgent matter, fire prevention may be more important in the long run.

Here is a man who does the right thing at the wrong time. If he waited just an hour, perhaps the impact of his words might be very different, totally the reverse in fact.

How sensitive are we to the emotional state of other people? Do we act and speak impetuously and thoughtlessly and so ruin perfectly good plans simply because we lack patience and get carried away by our own enthusiasm? How good is our timing? How important is timing?

The theme continues. Here is a bitter woman who tries to get her way by nagging her husband and trying to wear him down, rather than waiting for a moment when he is relaxed and in a more receptive state of mind. The wise woman understands and exploits her husband’s emotions, and he becomes putty in her hands.

Persistence alone is not always enough, and can be very annoying if manifested in the wrong place at the wrong time. How can we tell when someone is most likely to be susceptible to our influence, or responsive to a request? How can we make our message more acceptable?

A good wife can be extremely patient with a thoughtless husband, but like a roof that finally leaks after exposure to prolonged rainfall, the woman described here has cracked and become exasperated by the way she has been treated. Trying to shut her up is now as impossible as picking up a handful of oil or grasping the air. Perhaps her nagging is an outward symptom of an inward hurt, and the only solution is for the husband to make some radical changes and solve the real problems, rather than trying to fob her off with promises she knows are as empty and worthless. Do we solve problems, or simply live with them?

Feelings show in the skin contours of the face, and a dispirited person, like the wife in the previous proverb, will have a long face, drooping features, a hangdog look. The person who is positive and determined will exhibit a different physiognomy, a general tautness of the skin, a smile and a jutting of the jaw. Solomon compares facial features to the worn and blunted edge of a blade that can be sharpened and restored like new.

We have the ability to encourage a friend or partner who has become dispirited, and restore their resolution and inner strength. What it takes, says Solomon, is iron rubbing against iron -- mind interacting with mind, a process of discussion that identifies and removes the negative feelings and misconceptions that are making the person ineffectual, just as the sharpening of a blade proceeds by the removal of unwanted fragments of iron. Notice that the honing process is quite gentle, as the steel slides along the knife blade, and is repetitive and carried on as long as necessary to restore the cutting edge.

A fig tree will bear a good crop of fruit in due time if it is looked after properly. An oak tree, however, will only bear acorns, which are of little worth. Loyalty and patience are good, but should we also assess the potential of a situation before devoting years of our life to it?

What are your prospects? Is your present position likely to reward you with good fruit? Do your skills and knowledge equip you to care for this particular kind of tree? Do you need to cultivate a different variety?

Perhaps the theme continues from the previous proverb. How loyal are we to an employer? Do we quit and run for cover when things get tough, or do we stand and help them fight the battle? Do we offer support and encouragement when it is needed? Are we source of creative ideas and solutions to problems?

The Hebrew here apparently makes a variety of renderings possible. One option is that people are alike in their basic psychology. Another is that people assume that other people think like they do – so that the dishonest person, for example, thinks that everybody is dishonest.

Although we may we may differ in personality, gifts and points of character, we do

share common needs for love, belonging and fulfillment. It is said that if someone writes or speaks authentically from the heart, rather than pretentiously, other people will respond as the feeling expressed resonate with their own.

Do we empathize with other people, putting ourselves in their shoes, feeling their pain and understanding their anxieties? If we have a problem, it helps to know that we are not the only ones having to cope with such a situation. Perhaps that is why Peter encourages Christians to resist the whiles of the devil, saying: "Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world" (1 Peter 5:9).

Perhaps the theme continues, as Solomon stresses that human beings share common needs that can never be fully and finally satisfied. Just as the soil of the ground consumes the dead bodies buried in it and so is never full, so the eyes of man consume the light that enters them, and we never tire seeing new, different, interesting and beautiful sights.

Do we take account of people’s needs for variety and stimulation? The fashion industry thrives on it, as does the tourism business. How can we conquer boredom in our lives, at home and at work? Perhaps the contentious woman we met earlier was feeling bored and neglected.

In business, can we see things through the eyes of the discerning customer? What new thing do they want that we are not providing? How can we make our service more convenient and our product more user-friendly? What novel initiatives can we introduce?

How much success do we need? How much money? How much admiration? Will it ever satisfy us?

Gold has a higher melting point than silver, and whereas silver could be melted in a pot in an ordinary fire, gold required a special furnace capable of reaching higher temperatures. Given enough heat, these precious metals melt, lose their strength and go out of shape.

Can we handle the heat of praise? Can it be destructive? Can it melt the sterling character of the recipient? Can success go to our head and make us arrogant? Can fame make a man forget that he is just a man, still mortal, sinful and vulnerable to evil, like those whose faces he sees around him?

Grains of wheat crushed in a mortar split open and release their flour, a useful product. The fool, however, is enclosed by a hard shell of stupidity that cannot be dented. As a result, his inherent potential is never released.

A mortar is a dish so shaped so that the grains always tumble back to the bottom where they can be repeatedly struck by the hard grinding blows of the pestle. Must we keep exposing ourselves to hard knocks? Must we keep falling back into the same errors? Will we ever learn? Will we ever change?

Change comes from within, when a person finally decides to adopt a new attitude and take new direction. Are we ready to adapt our approach to reality?

A new theme seems to begin with these verses. How well do you control money and possessions? The poor farmer was a bad manager and let his animals stray far and wide, never knowing just how many he had or whether they were sick or well, alive or dead.

Know the state of your flocks and know it well, says Solomon. Be very methodical and diligent. Set up and maintain an effective record-keeping system. If you employ a shepherd, be sure to monitor his work and check on his figures. Do not be too casual and trusting.

If you have shares, keep a close watch on them from day to day, and have a well-planned strategy for buying and selling them. In business, do you cost the components parts of your operation in meaningful detail?

Do you inspect and maintain your property? As Solomon points out, things tend to degrade and go down hill, fall apart and get lost. Do you have the eagle eye and methodical mind of an effective manager? Simple neglect can ruin a throne, a kingdom, even a giant corporation.

The new theme continues as Solomon seems to be stressing the importance of developing several streams of income and setting up a good business system. In a business, how do you plan to generate revenue?

The same plot of ground produces hay and then a new crop of grass in the autumn – can you obtain repeat business from existing customers? The sheep and the goats feed on the same plot of ground – can you sell new products and complementary services from your existing premises and create a comprehensive range? Can you find new uses for existing machinery?

Have you been neglecting certain income opportunities simply because they require a bit more effort to organize --like the gathering of the herbs on the mountain slopes? Do you go after contracts that may at first sight seem to be out of your reach? Can you expand your operating territory, even if the added income is somewhat limited? Are you setting aside funds for the acquisition of new and better equipment?

Are you feeding your metaphorical maidens well and keeping them fit and healthy – do you invest money in training to enhance your own capability and that of your workforce?

As an individual, what are your gifts and skills? How can you become more productive? How can you use your talent and experience to find additional sources of income?