Week 40 Day 4

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Be Forthright with Your Enemies

They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.

Luke 20:35–36

There pain and sickness never come,

And grief no more complains;

Health triumphs in immortal bloom,

And endless pleasure reigns.

How do children get their way with their parents? They demand explanations. They want to know why or why not. And every parent knows that such conversations can’t be won. The child will bicker and wrangle, trying his or her best to win over the parent. Instead, the parent will say simply, “Because that’s the way it is.” End of story. Abraham Lincoln believed the same strategy worked with adults. “I wish no explanation made to our enemies,” he said. “What they want is a squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain, and they cannot have if we don’t.” That’s why Lincoln refused to sit down with the Confederacy in search of a compromise. He knew that would have been futile. If you want to win an argument, sometimes the best strategy is to say nothing at all.