I know that I have gathered enough years to have gained wisdom, but I am less certain to have developed wisdom. I have known people to have reached old age and do not seem to me to have yet gained wisdom, and I know young people who seem to have a store of wisdom even from a very young age.
Wisdom is certainly different than intelligence. Who has not known some very smart individual who seems to lack common sense? I am not disparaging what wisdom I do possess, especially when measured against my previous mistakes, but I do also keep discovering areas of life where I have not made the wisest choices. I doubt that I am exceptional in this way. Usually, we are better at noticing the unwise decisions of others than noticing our own unwise decisions. Maybe one of the marks of developing wisdom is the ability to learn from our mistakes. We often see others continuing to make the same life mistakes, without realizing that they are doing so. “I just didn’t think?!” can be the chorus to a lot of different verses. The “post trauma” response, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that,” shows that thinking and using our common sense could help us decide more wisely.
So how can we gain wisdom? James 1:5 gives us a strong clue, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” We can have faith that God will help us become wiser as we gain years if we are willing to listen to divine counsel from the Holy Spirit, from God’s word, and from those who have gained wisdom. So, I keep asking God for wisdom in all my situations. It seems like a wise decision.