daily java

Daily Java: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. (Proverbs 15:1-2)

One of the hardest things to do is to not answer back. It took a long time in my life to learn to not answer back when someone said something.

I always had a quick mouth and was very quick on the verbal draw. Sometimes it was just a response to what someone said that made me angry. They said something, I said something, the situation escalated and, at best, people went off angry and friendships were lost. At worst, there was battle. If it were not for the fact that I am so big, I would have really been hurt at times. That made it harder for me to learn to shut up.

A lot of times, it was a cute answer. They spring unbidden to my lips even today. It may have been just a stupid comment that made no real sense, but sounded cute. Either way, it caused problems.

It was very hard to learn to shut up, to just sit and listen, to not answer. In fact, it goes against everything that we want to do.

A little girl in my church in Oklahoma was always getting in trouble at school because she mouthed off to the other kids. I asked her why. She replied, they mouth off to me. When they quit mouthing off to me, I will quit hollering at them

Of course, that day will never come. Because the more she hollers, the more they will holler, retaliation will be met with retaliation, tensions will escalate and she will never have any friends.

Jesus was put on trial before the Roman procurator, a governor kind of guy. When the governor found out that Jesus was from Galilee in the northern part of Israel, he sent him to Herod, the Roman puppet king of that area.

Herod was a jerk in general that no one liked, but he had been interested in Jesus ever since he had heard of him. He asked Jesus several times to do a miracle for him. Jesus, however, never answered him. He never said a word. And he certainly didn’t do any miracles for the guy. He knew that it would do no good, since he was not a side show entertainer. Herod got rather irritated at Jesus but Jesus remained mute.

There are times we had just as well not say anything. It would do more damage than good. And there are times when there is no need to say anything.

There was an old saying: Keep your mouth closed and people may think you a fool. Open it and they will know.

Whenever I counsel people, I have learned to listen. Listen long enough and you can hear the answers to almost anything. Listen and don’t talk and you can diffuse the most adversarial situations.

After everybody is through talking, hollering, screaming, griping, caterwauling – wait. Then speak softly. It works almost every time.

I knew of someone who advertised in the paper that he would listen to anyone talk for a certain fee. You could call him and tell him anything and he would listen. He had a booming business.

No one wants to hear your blather. Just don’t talk and people will think you are so smart.

And that is what Jesus did. Can you imagine a smart mouth Jesus?