Proverbs 21.23
“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”
When you were growing up, there’s a good chance that your Mom said to you something my Mom said to me: “If you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. Just be quiet.”
Sometimes we simply lack the wisdom and discipline to sit still and be quiet. Something gets our attention, triggers an impulsive reaction, and we express our opinion without thinking or considering the impact of our words. We fire off a post on social media and experience an emotional rush because we declared our opinion in a public forum.
Even worse is when we feel a sense of moral superiority because we denounced, condemned, or vilified someone who has an opinion different from ours. In the online world, an impulsive and emotional declaration can be rewarded with likes, clicks, follows, and retweets. However, that can be false validation, because the likes, clicks, follows, and retweets are often from other people who are undisciplined and emotionally impulsive.
Here’s the reality: Having an opinion and having credibility are not the same thing. Just because you feel strongly about something doesn’t validate your opinion. Strong emotion is not an indicator of a worthy opinion.
“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” (Proverbs 18.2)
Beware of getting caught in the gravitational pull of impulsive emotion. Impetuous declarations are terribly divisive and do enormous damage to people, relationships, families, teams, companies, and entire communities.
The Christian community should be exemplars of verbal restraint and disciplined speech. Our speech should always be “seasoned with salt” … and we should be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
Whenever we act without verbal restraint, it is a failure to be humble before the God who redeemed us, calls us to himself, and sends us into the world as his ambassadors. It is imperative, therefore, that we take control of our habits of speech and communication.
“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.” (Proverbs 15.28)
The Lord is calling.
