Street smart

There are a couple of slang terms many use as a description for people's personality.

Book smart and street smart.

Book smart is for people who are knowledgeable in things that can be read in books, and street smart is for people who are knowledgeable in the ways of the streets - aka the world. That doesn't mean they are worldly, sinful people, they've just been out there and know how the world works.

This is not to say people can't be both, it's entirely possible.

However today I'm talking about me.

It's my blog, I can do that.

I fully admit that I am the least book smart person I know. I struggled my way through school, and finally graduated with an art degree after six years of college. Academics are not my thing to say the least. I've always considered myself to be more street smart than book smart. I can read a chapter of the bible and not be able to tell you much about it, but if you have a problem and come to me for help, I will soak up as much information about that situation as I can. My knowledge of the streets has quadrupled over the past few years. I've seen how bad the world can be, and I know what mistakes I made, and that others have made, and I learn from them. When I talk to people who are going through what I've been through, I see what works for them and what doesn't and I learn from that experience on top of what I learned from my own experiences. I try to learn something each and every time I talk to someone in order to be a better help to the next person.

In my house there are three twenty-something guys, and these guys have twenty-something friends that come over. This is a foreign thing for me being the mom of two little boys, but I like that we are the gathering house for them and their friends. Some of these guys and gals don't have a very good place to call home, or a family that is a positive influence. A lot of times, our house is the only positive family unit some of these kids ever see. And we don't make exceptions when they are here either, if you have supper with us, you pray with is. If you come into our house, you leave your evil habits or language at the door.

House rules.

No exceptions.

And our boys will be the first to tell you the rules.

On top of hanging out here, these kids come to David and me for advice on their lives. David is one of those brilliant men who are both book smart and street smart. Between the two of us, we can tell it to these kids straight and give them real advice on life in a positive way. We can tell them what works from our own experiences, and tell them what they are doing wrong because we've been in most situations - maybe not every situation, but if we didn't go through something, then we probably know someone who has - We can use the knowledge from others to help when we haven't been there ourselves. We tell them about our own personal hells, and the mistakes we made that caused them, and we tell them how we are different now and why things are better and how the Lord is blessing us because of it.

We don't preach to them with book smarts, we talk to them with street smarts.

It's awesome when you can actually get through the thick skull of a twenty-something and help them understand that you've been there.

I can call them that... it hasn't been that long since I was a stubborn, thick-skulled twenty-something. I know just how horrible your twenties are, and just how stupid they can make you.

As always, the things I write on here are things that I pray about, and I will continue to pray that David and I can be good influences in these kids' lives, and give them good advice that will lead them on a Godly path.

LLM