“Cultivating Wisdom” is a new program of Spiritual Development designed by BELOVED’s Co- Founders, Dale and Shelly Suggs. As Dale writes, “Cultivating Wisdom takes the best of our almost 80 years of combined experience teaching spirituality and leading spiritual practice and brings them together into a unified strategy to promote the flourishing of maturing adults.” 

Cultivating Wisdom recognizes the breadth of the human experience — spiritual, intellectual, emotional, relational, and physical — and envisions spiritual development in an integrated, unitive, whole-person approach.

Cultivating Wisdom was first imagined as a system of courses and practices for maturing adults. But people of every age can integrate their understanding of self, the world around them, and their relationship with the Beloved God who delights in God’s beloved children. The key is the willingness to learn and the commitment to practice.

19th-century Irish poet Oscar Wilde writes, “With age comes wisdom.” We’ve all heard that. But what many of us haven’t heard is that Wilde finished that thought, writing, “But sometimes, age comes alone.” Becoming wise takes more than time. It takes a heart open to or even longing for a deep knowing of the oneness of all things. And it takes the willingness or even the all-in commitment — mind, body, and spirit — to the practices that ground that oneness in the grace, inclusion and compassion of God in Jesus Christ.