Watch Your Mouth

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. (Proverbs 15:1, 2)

It’s so amazing how strong our words can be. Think about a word. Air comes from our lungs and flows past our vocal cords to create sounds out of our mouth. Fingers type in a particular order and post on our social media sites. It doesn’t take too much to express a word, and yet at the same time our words can effect so many things. These verses in Proverbs give us practical instructions about how we use our words. A couple of things I need to remember:

Respond to angry reactions with gentle responses.
I have to admit I struggle with this. I want to react to jerks in kind. I want to react to people who yell at me with yelling. When I do react this way though I notice something- it doesn’t work. Whenever I respond with anger to anger the anger escelates. It can become a vicious cyle until someone decides to stop.

If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut your mouth.
Have you ever heard someone make assertions in a confident way and you know that they are exactly wrong? Those who are confidently wrong are foolish. The person who is wise speaks up when they know something to be true and uses the knowledge they have in an effective way.

Lord, please thank you for Your Word that gives life and wisdom. Help me not to respond is anger with words that destroy. Help me to be wise in the things I say and do. I love you. Amen.