If life is a massive river of information, discernment is the ability of pluck the right things from that river.

Discernment is experiential.  Like wisdom, it builds out of the hits and misses of life.  I love to watch it in action.  Some examples:

• The supervisor who knows who to listen to when and what parts of the story to accept.
• The analyst who sorts through reams of financial data and extracts reality.
• The executive who can hear the lengthy report and zero in on the important stuff.
• The speaker who can take bits and pieces of information and develop them into a clear picture.
• The person who knows whose advice to take and whose to discard.

It is an art developed over years of listening, paying attention, watching, checking and acting.