“Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.” (Proverbs 19:2, New Living Translation, italics mine)

“E-K=H+M (Enthusiasm minus Knowledge equals Haste plus Mistakes. (DTEB)

I was trying to do something nice for my sweetheart.  I really was.  However, as Proverbs 19:2 points out, it is important to think through things.

I have gotten into the habit of occasionally warming up my wife’s towel in our dryer at home, so that she has a nice warm towel when she gets out of the shower.  It’s not difficult to do, and it seems to please her.

However, while microwaves will warm up towels, they may not be the best thing to use to do so.  As with most of the things I learn, I found this out by trying it.  I cannot recommend this method.

I had done this successfully for a day or two while we were on vacation, but on our last day of vacation the process seemed to take a little longer than usual.  I took the towel out, and it wasn’t warm enough.  So, I put the towel back in the microwave for a minute.

I started smelling something burning, but thought it was somebody smoking outside our room.  It wasn’t.  When I handed the towel to my sweetheart, parts of the towel looked and smelled like a marshmallow that had been left in the fire a bit too long.

The maids had brought some brand new towels to our room the day before.  Apparently they had not been washed (the towels, not the maids!).  My wife told me (after I had toasted the towel) that the brand new towels probably had some chemicals on them that made the towels more flammable.  She may have been making that up just to make me feel better, but I don’t care.  It did make me feel a little less stupid.

I confessed to the motel manager that I had ruined one of their good bath towels, and asked him to put it on our bill.  He was gracious and didn’t charge us for it.  I was not brave enough to tell him how I had ruined the towel.  Now that a week has gone by, I decided to come clean.  I am copying him into the e mail I send out to my readers.

It is very important to have your heart in the right place, and to be enthusiastic about serving others, especially those you love.  However, it is also very important to do so in a mindful manner.

This seems to be precisely what Proverbs 19:2 (quoted above) is driving at.  Christine Roy Yoder, commenting on this verse, puts it very nicely:

“Without knowledge, even well-intentioned desire can result in harm, just as ‘one who is hasty with feet misses’—presumable the path forged by God and the community . . . .  The wise are informed and deliberate.”[1]

I don’t know much about math, but I have come up with a formula that I will try to memorize and use regularly:

“E-K=H+M

Enthusiasm minus Knowledge equals Haste plus Mistakes.

The next time I feel enthusiastic about doing something, I will try to remember this formula.  I will try also to remember Proverbs 19:2, Yoder’s good words, and the burnt towel.  I will strive to think before I microwave!

[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 202.  This is one of the very best commentaries I’ve seen on Proverbs.  It is very faithful to the text, brief, well-written, and insightfully practical.  If you want a really excellent guide to the book of Proverbs in the Bible, buy her book!  (No, I do not get any royalties for recommending it.)