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"THE POWER OF A SOFT ANSWER IN DIFUSSING ANGER" "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." (Proverbs 15:1}When people are verbally attacked, and as the volume of another's voice rises, the attacked one can easily jump into this possible free for all by raising their own angry voice. Then, as they continue to volley, like they're in a tennis match, the words will begin to gain speed back and forth in an attempt to outdo the other person.Now folks, before those hot arrows of wrath-filled words hit their mark, like good ole Deputy Barney Fife used to say, "NIP IT, NIP IT IN THE BUD" before any unrepairable damage can be inflicted.Many times, the attacks can get rather personal. If it happens to be you or me, who wasn't the one in the wrong to begin with, we can take that godly road of wisdom and attempt to understand any misunderstandings of what it was that upset them. Let's never be that kind of person the Scriptures describe in Proverbs 18:2, "A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself."Raising our voice at someone in anger just increases the likelihood that they will raise theirs in order to keep pace with ours. A serene and Spirit-filled response will more often than not calm the situation down. If we can rule our speech, or at least hand over our tongue and lips to the keeping of God’s Spirit, what a World of Woe we would keep ourselves from and others as well.The humble soul will win the day by diffusing the anger, but the foolish and prideful person may think they have been victorious during the argument and received some satisfaction which pets and strokes their ego. Well, that's fine for them because the peacemakers have just shown by their actions that promise from Jesus to be called the Children of God (Matthew 5:9).Friends, if any of us have a short fuse that could wind up being attached to a long stick of dynamite, remember this: when anger strikes the match, it will explode and could do deadly harm to others gathered nearby. When that happens, we're the ones that have lost the battle of longsuffering, which is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), Who has been promised to dwell within us (2 Corinthians 1:22).