photo #2987457

"Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth." (Proverbs 6:2)All of us know people who like to talk just to hear themselves talk. There are plenty of folks, whether in a casual conversation or when counseling another, who do more talking than they do listening and miss out on a lot of good stuff. The Bible tells us in James 1:19, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:" Some of us have that swiftness and slowness stuff in that verse turned around, don't we?Sometimes we'll even begin to give an answer to a question or try to solve a problem that someone has while they're still telling us about it. I know this to be true in my own life because over the years, my wife has reminded me of that many a time. I have had to drop my head in shame and plead guilty to such foolishness! Proverbs 18:13 reminds us, "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him."How often we've heard someone say, "I wish I hadn't DONE that", but it's a rare confession when someone says, "I wish I hadn't SAID that." Our words, like Proverbs 6:2 teaches, can SNARE us, and if we're not careful, they can catch us either in a lie, or land us in a situation we didn't plan on.I remember reading years ago about this one country general store that had a sign which was hanging over a picture of a stuffed large- mouth bass. Someone had written on that sign the words, "If I had kept my mouth shut, I wouldn't be in this predicament." Now that's a real knee slapper, isn't it? But I don't believe any of us would want to end up like that, would we? Then let's be careful when we open our mouths and speak words. For they have the power to help and heal as well as harm and hurt.Friends, that little ticker that beats in our chest located about 12 inches under our mouth has a lot to do with what we say, doesn't it? Matthew 12:34b goes right to the root of many of our problems, "...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."