“I’m thinking it. I might as well say it!” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that statement. Next time you are tempted to speak your mind, you need to remember Proverbs 29:11 “A fool uttereth all his mind–“. I must confess, I’ve sometimes played the part of a fool and spoken when I should have remained silent. How about you?
I recently read an article by a woman who said she once had a constant need to tell everyone what to do and how to do it. She said,”I thought my husband needed my advice in every area of his life, including and especially in his driving.” Then one day she heard Elizabeth Elliot say,”Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth.” That changed her life and, as she put it into practice, even had a transforming affect on her husband.
We all have difficulties to deal with and opportunities to put this into practice. It’s not easy to remain silent when every fiber of our being wants to cry out in protest. People will ignore you, abuse you, neglect you, and use you. Some don’t like you and they want you to know it. Others, even family members, pretend to love you, but they don’t. It hurts and it hurts deeply, but you can’t do anything about it. It is what it is and you’re not going to change it. The only person you can control is yourself and you can’t even do that without divine assistance.
There is so much phony balony that we feel justified in speaking our mind, but in most cases it would be futile. When a person is out of fellowship with God they will hurt others, and you’re wasting your time trying to change them by appealing to their sense of right and wrong. They don’t care, and your words of wisdom will fall on deaf ears. The only thing you can control is your response to their injustice. For your own sake you need to just let it be. As Solomon said,”Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles”(Proverbs 21:23). As Elizabeth Elliot said,”Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut.”–HDS
