We can’t always find God’s path for our life by just doing “what feels right to me.” The Hebrew sages who composed and compiled the Proverbs knew that all too often we look at a course of action, a life pathway, and think, “Looks good!” But they emphasized that through all of life we need God’s wisdom to discern the path of true righteousness, which often helps us reach the “gray hair is a crown of glory” half of life.

• “All the ways of people are pure in their eyes, but the Lord tests the motives” (verse 2). Have you ever discovered, in your own life, that it is possible to do something good, but to do it from tainted inner motives? For what reasons would God care more about our inner motives than our outward behaviors? In what ways can God help you to see and understand your motives more clearly?
• Do you have any gray hair yet? If not you, surely your parents or grandparents have some. What’s the attitude about gray hair in your family, and in the social circles in which you move? Do you and the people you know tend to see it as “a crown of glory,” or are you more inclined to try to hide it? What connection did Proverbs make between “the path of righteousness” and gray hair?