What Did Your Father Tell You?

“The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction. Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly bring punishment to fools. A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
Proverbs 16:21-24

I have to admit I’ve been struggling a bit with what I see going on in the world and on social media at the moment. If I let my humanness take over this would be a rant and anything but encouraging, so I’ve decided to heed the words of a wise bunny named Thumper who listened well to his father’s words and said, “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all”. So I’m gonna honor my Father and do my best to say something nice and hopefully encourage you to say something nice as well. 

This week’s passage from the book of Proverbs, written primarily by King Solomon, is really about the power of words when combined with wisdom. Meaning there is a right way and a wrong way express ourselves. It seems to me that more now than ever social media is being used to spread falsehoods and create division. We all have a right to speak our minds but how about we engage our brains and use some wisdom when we speak. On social media instead of just liking and sharing or re-tweeting something just because it may somehow prove we’re right, why don’t we fact check and speak our own minds with well thought out words? Finding the truth these days can be hard, but not impossible so take the time to seek truth. Our corrupted human nature believes we should be right at all costs even if the means tearing others down to make ourselves look better. But, as followers of Christ, that’s not how we are supposed to act or speak. Speaking real truth with wise words helps bring understanding – as Solomon says it promotes instruction and brings healing.  

In Matthew 12 Jesus uses much stronger language than Solomon about what comes out of our mouths. Read it for yourselves – verses 23-37. He starts out by saying that nations and households that are divided cannot stand and then goes on to say that what comes out of our mouths reveals who we are at our cores – either good or evil and that someday we will be held accountable for the words we have spoken.  

I rant a lot in my head and as I do I usually determine that if I actually said those words out loud that they would not be helpful, they would not build someone up and they would not work to bring unity to whatever the situation is. I want to encourage you to seek wisdom and speak words of unity and healing.

Be like Thumper – listen well to the Father and if you can’t or don’t want to say something nice, then don’t say anything.

A Prayer
Father – I love how you can use an old Disney movie to teach important lessons. Lord fill our personal lives with Your wisdom and bring some into the life of our communities and nations. Help us to seek wisdom and to speak words that build others up and bring us into unity even when we don’t agree. May we be mindful of what Your Son says about what our words reveal about our hearts. In the name of Jesus, who wants us to remember what the Father said – Amen.