The Mirror and the Shield

Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. 9Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. Proverbs 9:8-9

The semi-annual performance review was a feared ritual at the agency. Maurício, the creative director, was known for his brutal honesty. On that day, he called two of his most promising young designers into his office: Ronan and Adriano. Both had worked on the same project, and the feedback would be about the same set of flaws.

Ronan went in first. He was talented but arrogant. He saw himself as a misunderstood genius. Maurício was direct, pointing out the inconsistencies in Ronan’s design, the lack of attention to the details of the brief, the missed deadlines.

“That’s not fair!” Ronan reacted, his defensiveness turning into aggression. “It was the brief’s fault for not being clear! And Adriano didn’t help me enough!”

He used the criticism as a shield, deflecting every point with an excuse or an accusation. He was the mocker.

“Ronan,” Maurício said, his patience already wearing thin, “I am trying to help you grow.”

“I don’t need that kind of help,” Ronan retorted. “If you can’t see the value of my work, maybe I’m in the wrong place.”

He left the room, slamming the door, leaving behind an atmosphere of hostility. Maurício sighed. He had tried to rebuke the arrogant man, and it had turned into an affront. Ronan, instead of learning, spent the rest of the day complaining to his colleagues, hating Maurício for having dared to criticize him.

Next, it was Adriano’s turn. He entered the room nervous, but with an open posture. He knew the project had not been his best work.

Maurício repeated the same critique, point by point. Adriano listened in silence, his face focused. He did not interrupt. He made no excuses. He used the feedback as a mirror, forcing himself to see the flaws that his pride tried to hide.

When Maurício finished, Adriano took a deep breath.

“Thank you, Maurício,” he said, his voice sincere. “I needed to hear that. Where do you think I could have focused more? Do you have any advice on how I can better organize my process to avoid these mistakes in the future?”

He was the wise man. The rebuke did not diminish him; it instructed him.

Maurício leaned back in his chair, surprised and impressed. What had been a confrontation with Ronan became a mentoring session with Adriano. They spent the next hour talking, drawing new strategies on a whiteboard. Adriano left the room not with anger, but with gratitude. He had been rebuked, and because of it, he came to love and respect his director even more.

In the following months, the trajectories of the two became a case study.

Ronan, embittered, isolated himself. His work became sloppy, his attitude toxic. He saw conspiracies everywhere, believing that Maurício was “picking on him.” Eventually, he resigned, blaming the “agency’s culture” for his failure.

Adriano, on the other hand, flourished. He applied every piece of advice. He became more organized, more collaborative, wiser. He began to proactively ask for feedback. He and Maurício developed a relationship of deep mutual respect. A year later, when a team leadership position opened up, the choice was obvious.

Adriano learned, in practice, that criticism is not what defines us. How we react to it does. To the arrogant, it is an insult that breeds hatred. To the wise, it is a gift that breeds love and makes them wiser still.

(Made with AI)

This story is part of my book Everyday Wisdom

https://books2read.com/u/3knogL

This poem is part of the book Life Through the Words.

See the book:

https://books2read.com/u/bQpQ7d

The Fall of Human Being

Someone like himself, God has created,

He created the man whom He has loved.

Like his image and likeness, God has made him,

Upon the Earth, God granted him leadership.

 

The Lord did not want to see the man lonely,

He created a life mate for him.

One woman who was his own flesh,

One life mate who would support him.

 

The first couple was made.

All trees and fruits were given to them,

They could not eat only one in the garden,

If they ate, surely, they would die.

 

Even so, they preferred to disobey,

The serpent’s advice, they heeded.

Their eyes were opened, and they could see everything.

They got afraid and hid when God was coming.

 

The Lord was not pleased with this attitude,

He cursed the serpent and its life,

They were expelled from paradise.

They were thrown into the common land.

 

Now, they will have to work to get food,

They will suffer many pains in their lives.

All of it is because they did not obey God.

And they tasted what was forbidden by the Lord.

This poem is part of the book Christian Poetry Volume II.

See the book:

https://books2read.com/u/mg5w0z

The Prepared Table

Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars … Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight. Proverbs 9:1,6

The “highest point” of the city, for young people like Enzo, was the overpass above the train tracks. It was there that life happened, or rather, where life was wasted. Amidst graffiti and the noise of the train cars, they would spend their afternoons, aimless, feeding on boredom and empty dreams of easy money. Enzo, at seventeen, felt a restlessness, a desire for something more, but the inertia of the group kept him trapped. He was the “simple,” the “naive,” drifting without direction.

The invitation arrived in an unexpected way. Not from an angel, but from a “servant” in the form of a crumpled flyer he found on the bus floor. The flyer announced the opening of the “Seven Pillars Project,” an old mansion renovated by a lady everyone knew only as Mrs. Eliana.

Mrs. Eliana was Wisdom personified. A former school principal who, after retirement, invested all her time and resources to build her “house.” The “seven pillars” were the workshops she offered: academic tutoring, computer programming, music, carpentry, English, financial literacy, and vocational counseling. She had prepared her “feast,” mixed her “wine”—knowledge, dignity, hope.

“Need direction? Come on over!” the flyer said. The words seemed to speak directly to Enzo.

“Are you going to get into that, Enzo?” his friend, Cadu, scoffed when he saw the flyer. “Going to become the granny’s pet? We make our own way on the streets. It’s faster.”

Despite the mockery, a stubborn curiosity led Enzo to the mansion’s gate. He peeked through the bars. He saw young people like himself, but with a different light in their eyes, learning to fix a computer, to play the guitar. He saw the prepared table. And he felt hungry. Hungry for something the street did not offer.

With his heart pounding, he went inside.

Mrs. Eliana greeted him with a smile that was not of pity, but of expectation.

“We were waiting for you,” she said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “There is a place for you.”

Enzo started with the carpentry workshop. His hands, once used to holding spray paint cans, learned to handle the plane and the chisel. He discovered the joy of transforming a rough piece of wood into something useful and beautiful. He was eating the “bread” of creation, of purpose.

Next, he went to the programming class. His mind, previously anesthetized by boredom, lit up with the logic and creativity of code. He was drinking the “wine” of knowledge, of possibility.

The transformation was not just external. By talking with Mrs. Eliana and the other mentors, he learned about responsibility, integrity, and a vision for the future. He was abandoning the “folly” of an aimless life.

Months later, Cadu found him at the project’s exit. Enzo was carrying a small wooden stool he had built himself, a gift for his mother.

“Still wasting your time in there, man?” Cadu asked, but his voice held less mockery and more curiosity.

Enzo looked at his own hands, now with small calluses from work. He looked at the stool, a symbol of his transformation.

“I’m not wasting time, Cadu,” he replied, with a calmness he did not possess before. “I’m gaining a life.”

He had accepted the invitation. He had sat at Wisdom’s table and, for the first time, he felt truly nourished. Life, with all its possibilities, was just beginning.

(Made with AI)

This story is part of my book Everyday Wisdom

https://books2read.com/u/3knogL

The Flood

The Lord was saddened by his creation,

He saw human beings only generate devastation.

The wickedness mastered everyone.

There was no kindness in no one.

 

God decided to destroy everything,

He will send to the Earth the great flooding.

Before all this happens,

There was a servant that God desired to protect,

Noah was a man blessed by God,

God would save him and his beloved ones.

 

Build an ark. God commanded him,

And every pair of animals would come in.

So that every kind of animal will keep alive,

After the rains, they will start a new Earth and life.

 

There will not remain any human beings,

All wickedness of the Earth will be cleansed.

Until the highest mountains will be flooded.

The Earth will seem like a big lake.

 

After to happen everything,

The waters started receding.

The land could be seen again.

The hope of a new life arose in them.

 

God led them until they came out of the ark.

The promise of fidelity has been confirmed.

In gratitude, Noah sacrificed,

About that, the Lord delighted.

A new covenant with Noah was established,

Another time, this world will never be destroyed.

There will be a sign to people recognize,

How much God showed his love for their lives.

This poem is part of the book Christian Poetry Volume II.

See the book:

https://books2read.com/u/mg5w0z

Modern Christianity

The Christian religion is modernizing,

And with its modernity comes sin.

For some people, everything is right,

But this is a deception in their minds.

 

In church, worldly doctrines are placed,

The practices of the sinners are imitated.

The pretext for this is that Jesus will be preached,

They do everything to justify wrong deeds.

 

Secular music is already used in some places,

It is no longer possible to separate it from praise.

Many churches are like musical presentations,

It is not possible to notice the Lord’s adoration.

 

Some temples are secularized,

Where the customs of sinners are practiced.

There are even pastors preaching using profanities,

People suppose it is normal, it is part of the preaching.

 

There are leaders concerned about entertaining,

They allow all to happen in church without discerning.

Many of these happenings are wrong,

For a strange gospel, the people are going on.

 

All people are led to the gospel of secularization,

A gospel based on human beings and emotions.

They are totally deviated from what Jesus said,

Going through the path that humans indicated.

On this path, there is no way to salvation,

It is the way that leads the person to condemnation.

Only the Gospel of Christ can save everyone,

Only the “old” Gospel can free each person.

This poem is part of the book Christian Poetry Volume V.

See the book:

https://books2read.com/u/m0JKpA

Watching at the Door

Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.” Proverbs 8:33-36

The news of the company merger landed like a meteor, and the layoff list that followed was the shockwave. On it were two names, side by side: Danilo and Gilson. Both with more than fifteen years at the company, both at the peak of their careers, both with families and mortgages. Both, in the blink of an eye, unemployed.

That night, Gilson’s house was filled with the sounds of death. Not physical death, but the death of hope.

“It’s over!” he yelled at his wife, who tried to calm him. “Years of dedication thrown in the trash! They betrayed me! I hate this company; I hate this city!”

He spent the night drinking, cursing his luck, sinking into a pit of self-pity and rage. He hated the counsel that told him to be calm, to trust. To him, wisdom was a bad joke in the face of life’s brutality.

At Danilo’s house, the silence was also heavy, but it was not the silence of despair. It was the silence of pain being processed in prayer. He hugged his wife, he cried, he allowed himself to feel the weight of the blow. But in the midst of his anguish, he made a choice. He decided to “watch daily at wisdom’s doors.”

The next morning, while Gilson was still asleep, drowned in his hangover of bitterness, Danilo rose before the sun. He had no office to go to, but he created a new routine. He spent the first hour of the day reading the Bible and praying, not asking for a miraculous job, but asking for clarity, strength, and direction. He was, metaphorically, waiting at the gate for Wisdom’s entrance.

Gilson spent the following weeks immersed in his own violated soul. He rejected calls from friends, spent his days in pajamas, watching news programs that only fed his anger at the world. He became a fountain of bitterness, and his family began to distance themselves from the toxic cloud he had become. He loved the death of his own spirit.

Danilo, on the other hand, began to act. He updated his résumé. He made a list of all his skills. He called his contacts, not to complain, but to ask for advice and referrals. He enrolled in an online course to learn a new programming language. He was watching, attentive to opportunities. He did not know where help would come from, but he kept himself ready at the door.

The difference became clear in a job interview. Gilson finally got one, but his bitterness overflowed. He spoke ill of his former company, complained about the economy, and projected the energy of a victim. He did not get the job.

Danilo also faced rejections. But in every interview, he spoke of his years at the company with gratitude for what he had learned. He spoke of the future with a cautious but genuine optimism. He did not deny the difficulty of the situation, but his identity was not defined by it.

Two months later, Danilo received an offer. It was not for the same position or with the same salary as before. It was a new beginning, at a smaller company, but with a culture he admired. It was a door.

As he told his wife the news, he felt a deep joy. He had found life. Not because he had found a new job, but because, in the process, he had found a resilience he did not know he possessed. He had found peace in the midst of uncertainty. He had found the Lord’s favor, not in the form of a life without problems, but in the form of strength to get through them.

One day, he ran into Gilson at the supermarket. Gilson looked older, worn down.

“I heard about your new job,” Gilson said, with a hint of envy. “You’ve always been luckier than me.”

Danilo looked at his former colleague with compassion.

“It wasn’t luck, Gilson,” he said gently. “We were both hit by the same storm. The only difference is that, in the darkness, I decided to keep watching, waiting for the morning light. You, unfortunately, decided to close the door.”

(Made with AI)

This story is part of my book Everyday Wisdom

https://books2read.com/u/3knogL