Thursday, February 13, 2014

Sometimes It Is Best To Say Nothing

"If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth."
Proverbs 30:32 (NKJV)

Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all.  Too often people just talk without any thought about what they are saying and what effect their words will have.  It is one thing to just talk but it is something else to actually have words that are valuable and proper to speak in a given situation.  Proverbs 30 gives us a good guideline for our words; if we have said something foolish or have had some wrong thoughts the best thing to do is to stop talking!  Instead of just going on and on talking and making a mess of things it is sometimes best to just not say anything until we are sure we have something good to say.

In Mark 9 we read the story of Jesus being transfigured on the mountain.  Peter, James, and John were with Jesus when this event took place; Peter began to talk and said that maybe they should set up some tents or something.  It is not exactly clear what Peter was talking about but we do know that the Bible says Peter was afraid and did not really know what to say.  It would have been better at that moment for Peter to just be quiet and do as God told them when He said, "This is my beloved Son. Hear Him!"  It would have been better for Peter to stop talking and just listen. 

We have all been in situations where we start talking and soon realize that what we said was the wrong thing to say.  Are we like Peter and we don't know what to say and so we just say something because we are afraid or uncomfortable in the situation?  Do we let our emotions get the best of us and we just blurt out something that we later regret?  As one wise person said, you can almost always say something later, but once you say something you can't take it back.  The best thing is to be careful with the words we say, to ourselves and to others, to choose our words wisely and realize that sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all.

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