SCRIPTURE:
2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart (to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth,) so let your words be few.
Ecclesiates 5:2
OBSERVATION:
I have the distinct pleasure of possibly being the only student to get kicked out of the Hawaii Youth Symphony for “disciplinary reasons”. Not because I didn’t have the skill to play or perform, but because I didn’t know when to just shut my mouth. To my defense, all I was asking was for was for the director to show me how to play through a section of music that he kept stopping the whole orchestra for to correct me on, over and over again. My exact words were, “why don’t you come here and play it for me correctly”. Well, that wasn’t the whole statement. I might’ve sneaked in a “cause I bet you can’t” in there for good measure.
Me and my big mouth…got me in trouble again. And it happens everywhere, at work, on the road, and worse of all, at home. I just don’t know when to shut up sometimes.
But it’s not just speaking up or out of turn that gets me in trouble. It’s, as the scripture says, the “quickness” and “hastiness” of my mouth that really gets me in bad situations. Too often I listen to respond instead of listening to hear. And in doing so I miss the whole point of conversations and end up the fool. I also want to speak my version of the truth without first yet developing the love to go with it.
And it’s not only the swiftness of my speech, but the tone and content as well. It’s one thing that I speak before my time, but my words want to lean on evisceration rather than victory. I’m quick to point out what’s wrong, where it went wrong, and why it was wrong. If sweet words are a honeycomb as the Proverb says, mine are more like li-hing sour patch kids.
APPLICATION:
So what do I do?
- Don’t rush to respond to questions. I need to listen closely and carefully in order to answer accurately. A quick response isn’t required of me, but an honest, accurate and encouraging one is.
- Be grateful. As a wise man says, “build a bank account of gratefulness and it’ll bankrupt your complaining.” Same wise man believes God cares about our gratefulness more than anything else. I got nothing to complain about, so my speech and actions should reflect that.
- Train my eyes and my mouth to see into a higher state. Hope is alive! That can’t just be a song, it needs to be my worldview and my perspective, the lens in which I see everything and the lips in which I say everything.
PRAYER:
Jesus, when I take a long and wide look at my life the praise reports grossly outnumber the problems. The blessing far out weight the burdens. My actions and my speech should reflect that. Thank you for Your grace and I pray for the discipline and commitment to simply shut my mouth. Amen
