The Teacher spends today making trades: a good name over fine perfume, the house of mourning over the house of feasting, patience over pride, wisdom over weapons. Every trade looks backward at first and pays forward.

God's better rarely feels better in the moment. Read today's proverbs like exchange rates from someone who bought everything and learned what held value.

The house of mourning is a strange classroom, and the Teacher insists it is the good one, because funerals tell the truth parties are designed to avoid: your days are numbered and what you build with them matters. The wise walk out of that house changed. The foolish never walk in.

Paul's two sorrows run on the same distinction. Grief that turns you toward God leaves no regret; grief that only circles itself brings death. Pain is not optional this side of heaven, but its direction is. Aim yours, and even mourning becomes better.