knowing when to speak or stay silent...
This is something I am trying to be more conscious of lately:
Proverbs 12:23 says, "A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly." And Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 7 say, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ...a time to be silent and a time to speak."
I, along with so many people probably, have a tendency to have to fill silence with something or offer advice when it's not wanted or needed. This is something that God had brought to the surface of my heart a couple weeks ago and then last week I was reading in Proverbs and found that verse. And then today in Leadership class we talked about the very same thing: how a good leader, a wise leader, knows when to just listen instead of speak. It kept coming up for me so I figured I had better pay more attention to it than I already had been.
I know that so many times if I am talking to someone about problems or my overwhelmedness, my listener automatically launches into a diatribe on how they think I should fix the situation. The truth is, I didn't really want that at all; I just needed someone to listen to me. I know this is a major point of contention between men and women. Women want to vent to their men; men want to fix their woman's problems. Why is this? Why do we all have this need to "blurt out folly" as Proverbs puts it?
Anyhow, you could just pray for me on this issue, that God would reveal to me when I need to be silent and when I need to speak. And I encourage you to examine your own motives when you speak.
Grace and peace to all of you friends. And I apologize for the larger span of time between my last post and this one. What was I thinking taking 21 credit hours of theology and high level courses? Why didn't anyone speak up and tell me I was insane?
I am off to Anchorage for the weekend to sing at Native Musicale tonight and at a fundraiser banquet tomorrow night. I will be back Saturday afternoon/evening. Please pray for us that we would have safe travels.
4 comments:
are you watching me? how do you keep bringing up stuff i am in need of working on? this is starting to really be weird...oh well...good lessons for me. :)
i too have often waaaay to much to say and dont realize i need to keep it to myself until its too late and already out on the table...with any luck at all this too shall pass! :)
that totally makes sense for me...cause i process things best verbally...which is why its so hard for me to "shut up" :)
also when its done out loud its a lot harder to rationalize it (whatever it may be) away.
i will be praying.. you are dead-on correct about men wanting to fix problems, etc.
grace and peace to you as well, friend!!
I heard, or maybe read recently, that people are not as likely to remember what we say or what we do as much as how me made them feel. Taking time to listen is probably the number one way to make someone feel valued and loved.
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