Proverbs praises the kind of wisdom that notices danger before it hardens into disaster. The prudent see trouble and take cover; the simple keep going and suffer for it. This is not fearfulness. It is moral attention: the humility to admit that harm is real, and that carelessness can wound more than ourselves.

Paul gives that attention its inward shape. Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Road safety is not sustained by skill alone. It requires restraint, patience, and the refusal to let haste become cruelty.

Much of the sorrow on the road begins in ordinary moments: tiredness, distraction, anger, speed, overconfidence, neglected maintenance, a choice to press on rather than slow down. Yet the cost of one moment may be carried for years in another person's body, memory, or home. Lord, give us prudence and humility. Bless those who teach, design, enforce, and respond. Comfort those living with injury or grief. And make us more neighbourly in the smallest decisions, so that the strong do not treat others as obstacles, and preventable harm is restrained before it takes hold.

Prayer points