GUARDING YOUR WORDS

A fool lets out all of his spirit, but a wise man holds it back. 

Proverbs 29:11

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” It would seem that President Lincoln had been reading his Bible. Proverbs 12:16 says, “An ignorant fool’s anger is known at once, But a prudent man conceals disgrace.” In a similar way we read in Proverbs 19:11, “A man’s insight makes him slow to anger, and it is his honor to overlook a transgression.”

When someone says an unkind word toward us, or does something that is unloving, our knee-jerk reaction is to let them have it with our words. When we are driving down the road and someone pulls out in front of us, what comes out of our mouths? When our family member uses words that hit us the wrong way, what words are coming out of our mouths? 

Nobody wants to be a fool, but God tells us that in those moments when we let the words fly, we are just that. King David understood the struggle, which is why he prayed, “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” We must pray a similar prayer. 

It is only when we are walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ that we will be able to guard our words and not respond with the first thoughts that come to our mind in a given situation. May the Lord help us to be wise men and women who guard our words, and glorify our Savior in all our responses today.  

Joshua Steiner