Raise your hand if you have a little trick to keep your mouth from getting you in trouble! 🙋🏻♀️ (Please share in the comments below!) Do you count to ten before replying? Perhaps you take a few deep breaths before responding in anger. Whether it’s online, in person, or in a text message conversation, it always pays off in the end if you pause and ponder before replying! There is some advice and instruction given to us in scripture about this very thing.
Take it easy!
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
James 1:19
When I consider this verse in James 1, I unfortunately find myself falling short in all three areas! When it comes to having a conversation with people, the number one rule of etiquette is to listen intently, without interrupting. Many of us listen while already preparing what to say next. We half listen. We assume we know where the conversation is going, and are in a hurry to give our opinion and solution for the other person’s problem. (Whether they are asking for it or not!) We should be swift to hear, and slow to speak. We also should be slow to wrath. Before I got saved (and if I’m honest, it still gets me now and then, too) being quick to anger was my biggest problem. I was an angry person. Sometimes the reason we get angry quickly is because we haven’t fully listened and understood what was being said. Misunderstandings account for 90% of relationship problems, according to a website called selfgrowth.com. Something to think about.
Slow your role!
Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him.
Proverbs 29:20
When we think about what makes a man foolish, we come up with several ideas in our heads. I don’t know that the first thought that pops into my mind, however, is someone who speaks before thinking. Yet the Bible says clearly that if you are hasty in your words there is more hope for a fool than for you! This makes you less than a fool, whatever that is called! (Maybe an idiot? haha) It’s apparent that God places a lot of value in our words. Did you know three of the seven things the Lord hates which are an abomination to him involve our tongue/our words? (Proverbs 6:16-18)
You say it best when you say nothing at all!
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2
It’s important to remember God hears/knows everything. Said and unsaid. Ecclesiastes 5:2 reminds us that not only must we be careful with our mouth, but also what is in our heart! I have seen many funny shirts/coffee mugs out there with little sayings like “I’m sorry for what my face said while you were talking”, or “What my mouth doesn’t say my face sure will”. While hilarious, and very true and applicable to many of us (myself included), I can’t help but to think about this verse. What is in your heart will spill out of your mouth, and at the least it will show on your face. How many times do we get onto our children for saying nothing at all, but rolling their eyes or stomping away in anger? We must guard our reactions, and be slow to react. Even when we react without words.
Jesus is our example in all things.
No matter the situation, Christ always practiced what he preached. There is never a time in history when he has contradicted scripture. Check out these passages where Christ was a man of few words, even though it would seem to us he had “every right” to be angry at those speaking to him and about him. I shall add this to my list of ways I want to be more like HIM!
And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Mark 14:60-62
But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.
Matthew 27:11-14
And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.