Mumumm, muummm...

"Bite your tongue!" Ahhh, the exercise that is so difficult to do and yet so truly needed in our world.

Reading through Proverbs 21 this morning and I came to verse 23. "Those who guard their mouth and their tongues guard themselves from trouble." (CEB)

A recent post on various social media sites shared, "Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve upon the silence?" Holding my tongue and refraining from sharing my opinion and postition on a hundred different things can be a monumental task. Just browsing through Facebook reveals a great anger and frustration that usually comes across as diatribe and vitrolic abuse of another person. I might add, another of God's creation.

Just in the last week, the disagreements ranged from the validity of big game hunting to profiting from selling body parts. It ran the gammut of which pick-up trucks were better to whether 'black lives matter'. How God's heart must break and churn as He watches over all this chaos. We have long lost the ability to reason and have mutual discussions on those issues that threaten to divide us. Sad. A growing militancy is fast becoming the norm of conversation. If you aren't in full agreement with me, then you are the enemy. It is here that words become the bullets that strike and disable. This militancy is not reserved for one people group; it is used extensively by people on both sides of an issue. Nothing good can come out of an argument where both people walk away thinking they have won by obliterating their opponent. Such confusion can only be generated by Satan.

How about you, do you feel a need to express yourself when you see or hear something that riles you? Savor this quote from Abraham Lincoln and see if it doesn't sound a lot like Proverbs 21:23. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."