Wise Words

Good Evening to All!

How many times have you said something to someone and knew as soon as it came out that you would regret it? I would have given almost anything to take it back. My own mantra has become "Lord create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I say this because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Whatever you hold in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth. I am constantly asking God to keep a check on my tongue, because I have a bad habit of speaking first and thinking afterward. Needless to say I need to put the verse below on my heart and put it into practice.

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Tonight's Seed: "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and her tongue is the law of kindness. (Proverbs 31:26 KJV)

"She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. (Proverbs 31:26 NIV)

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Don't you wish people would say that about you? Sometimes we don't know the right thing to say, but even more often, we blurt out the wrong thing.

We should be like Davide, when wrote, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin, I will put a muzzle on my mouth. . . " (Psalm 39:1). Have you ever wished you had a muzzle for yourself? We all have times when we should just be quiet. David, too, had problems controlling his tone. In Psalm 39 he wrestled with wanting to speak and wanting to be silent. He didn't want anyone to misunderstand his words.

when we don;'t have muzzles, we can consider how our listeners might interpret our words. If we thing before we speak, we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that what we've said is what we meant. We also needs to be aware of our body language and our tone of voice. sometimes lifting our eyebrows or folding our arms can speak louder than our words.

The "virtuous woman" mentioned in Proverbs 31 had things under control.--including her tongue. She knew who she was. From other verses in this chapter we know she didn't pretend to be someone she was not. she also shared faithful instruction with others. We've all learned a lot in life, and we can enjoy sharing our knowledge if we do it the right way at the right time. Doing that takes wisdom. if we follow the advice of the woman in Proverbs 31, we won't need muzzles.

Dig Deeper: The Greek word for "wisdom" is chokmah, which means skillful, wisely, and with wit. Humor can be a part of wisdom.

Background Bulb: Proverbs chapters 30 and 31 were written by someone other than Solomon. Both chapters are called prophecies. Chapter 31 is a poem with twenty-two verses, each beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The chapter lists all the attributes that godly women should have. It does not describe one specific super woman. What a relief!

Weed & Water: the words we use can be powerful--they can cause harm or they can heal. What we say and how we say it affects others. Everyone loves a woman hose mouth speaks words of blessing and comfort rather than harsh commands. A touch of humor can soften even hard-to-deliver truth.


Think about it: What do wisdom and faithful instruction have in common?

Think of a time when you held your tongue. How do you think it changed the outcome of the situation?

What are some ways you can avoid the common habit of speaking more carefully to others than to your family?

Prayer Pot: Dear Lord, give me the grace to speak with wisdom about. . . (Insert your thoughts).

Take-Away Idea: "It's better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt. Abraham Lincoln

I must say while looking for a picture to top of this post, I ran across one that scared me. I was a picture of a BIG BROWN BEAR, and under it the caption was mommas.soap box. Now to be truthful I think that is who took the picture because it was in red, but my first thought was "my favorite word is soap box. Whoever has received long comments from me knows this. Anyway, I thought "is this what I sound like to my hubby when I'm trying to get a point across?" I know I'm "reaching" but that was my first thought when I saw that picture with those words. LOL! I am going to definitely work on changing my image. It's bad enough going from 102 pounds to lets just say what I weigh now over 80 pounds ago, but I wonder if that's what I sound like to him. I think I need to do some changing.

Reference: Devotional taken from"Bible Seeds" A Simple Study-Devotional for Growing in God's Word byPatsy Clairmont and Florence Littauer.

Good Night To All and May God bless!