Wisdom Stat! What is that?

From the very start of my D&D gaming/roleplaying career, Wisdom has always been a very important player statistic for me to invest in my characters.  I could be playing a Barbarian (who is all about Strength and Constitution btw) and I will almost always strive to make his Wisdom on par or better than his main stats. Why does wisdom matter in a game setting like D&D? How do you even use it? Excellent questions, my inquisitive reader or listener of our podcast 😉. In short, wisdom is about seeing the environment around yourself or other players and knowing how to best address it. Related skills under the wisdom stat are: animal handling, insight, medicine, perception, and survival. This differs from Intelligence which tends to be focused on facts or Charisma that focuses on your contribution to the environment around you. Wisdom is a bit passive, but it's actively looking for things that can help your adventure party in a bind to react well or to process intentions of others.  Also the "perception" stat is one of the most used stats in the game for any "horror film vibe" scenarios that a group will face in an unknown environment; especially if it involves going out at night during a full moon....

Growing up in a churched home, I was always taught that a person should look to be more wise than knowledgeable.  Often referring to the difference that knowledge is knowing a fact (2+2=4), while wisdom understands the why behind the answer. So in my pursuit of being a "wise guy", so to speak, I started diving into Proverbs (one of three books of wisdom in the Bible) and would even memories some of the idioms of wisdom for personal reminders of growth.  This is all well and good, but one lesson that has kept on coming to me about wisdom is found in James 1:5-8. "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world and they are unstable in everything they do."

It is awesome to ask for more wisdom, but we need to be going at it 100%.  To have wisdom, you have stability in all situations, especially when it's focusing on God (who is wisdom/the source of it).  If we don't hold onto the wisdom that God gives us, its like knowing that there is a threat on the horizon and you focus on chasing the butterflies in your midst. Wisdom is only good if we put it into practice.

How is your personal wisdom stat? If you are feeling low in wisdom, you now know where to go for that (God and the Bible). When you learn and see an opportunity to grow; go for it, don't waste the wisdom that you have been given.

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