Think Before You Speak

Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.

—BERNARD MELTZER

He who guards his mouth keeps his life, but he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

—Proverbs 13:3

I have caused a lot of complicated messes in my life by not thinking before I spoke. Over the years, I have made progress and gained wisdom in this area, but I still make mistakes and constantly have to remind myself to THINK BEFORE I SPEAK!

The tongue is an unruly evil according to the book of James (see James 3:8). It is the spark from which so many problems often develop, and if we don’t get it under control, we often see the equivalent of a forest fire in its wake. Words are containers for power, but they carry and deliver the negative as well as the positive. If we speak from the flesh rather than the spirit, the power delivered will be negative. The writer of Proverbs wrote that life and death are in the power of the tongue (see Proverbs 18:21). That is a strong statement and should be seriously considered.

Every kind of beast can be tamed, but the tongue cannot be tamed without the help of God. We must listen carefully to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us and stop talking the moment we get a signal we are going in the wrong direction. Better yet, don’t even start talking until we get the go-ahead from God. There are many times I want to talk to my husband about something but get a feeling down deep inside that it is just not the right time. For years, I ignored that feeling and did my talking when I felt like it; and for all of those years my mouth caused complicated problems for my life. I have made a commitment to listen more and speak less, but I must admit, I need help. How about you pray for me and I will pray for you as you read this book? We will believe together that we will have the grace from God to listen to wisdom (God) and think before we speak.