The Art of Shutting Our Mouths!

Wednesday's Devotion (3-23-05)

"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." Proverbs 17:28 (KJV)

It takes a moment of wisdom to keep your mouth shut sometimes. A lot of times, I'm not counted as wise regarding this matter, but I'm counted as a fool. Instead of keeping my mouth shut, I open it and I say all those feelings that are coming in. Later on, I'm sorry for doing it. What you say now is going to come back on you in the future: It's either going to bite you in the future or it's going to help your future. Let's say that you go to the store and someone there is giving you trouble and you tell them off. You say a bunch of mean stuff to this man. You leave the store and think nothing of it for a few weeks. Your car dies and you call around for mechanics, you find the cheapest one. When he comes to tow your car, you see that it's the man you told off and he says, "Oh, it's you! I'm not working on your car," or he works on it and does something hateful to it. This is why it's important to hold our peace and keep our mouths shut. This isn't the only reason either, we need to be a light!

This is definitely one of the hardest things for me. One time I walked into a McDonald's, because they didn't make our food right. I complained and asked for an exchange and the manager says, "You come here all the time, what's wrong with it today!?" I told her what was wrong with it and she says, "Whatever!" This is when I have trouble, I said, "I thought people who worked here were supposed to be polite!" When I walked out, I heard the woman behind me jump on the lady for what she did to me. All I did was cause more trouble. It's hard not to keep our mouths shut, especially when we're the ones being wronged. Another example is this: My sister used to work at Burger King and she was off one night, but I found out this story through her. There was another manager working when a robber came in. The robber demanded the money and the manager said, "No!" You can guess what happened, can't you? He got shot. Thankfully he lived through it, but he could've died. There's only one thing that we shouldn't keep our mouths shut on, when someone says, "Deny Christ or die," then we should say, "I'll die!" Also, we should open our mouths when someone is deceiving people. We need to learn the art of shutting our mouths!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Please help us to shut our mouths when they need to be shut, and to open them when they need opened. Help us to be a light for you. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!

Hope you enjoyed. Please post your thoughts on this topic, on the message board or in our Guestbook.