Think Before You Speak

By Andrew Cascio

“Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have you ever had a conversation with a friend or loved one where they said something to you that really irritated you? How did you respond? Did you treat the situation with love, did you stop and think about what you said, take time to carefully choose your words? Or did you feed the flesh and spew whatever words you could? I’m sure we are all guilty of the latter. The fact of the matter is we can really do a lot of harm with our words. Words can go really deep and cause many emotional scars. If we don’t take the time to think before we speak we can cause a lot of turmoil in our relationships. Sometimes it’s important to sit back and listen, not speak, take time to hear what the other person is saying. Perhaps pray on it before giving a response. Think about how it will make the other person feel and how they will react, think about how it will affect the relationship. The old saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all” could go really far here. Think how much more respect you could have if someone treated you wrongly and you turned the other cheek. Someone yells and screams at you and you kill them with kindness. Others will see how you respond and know that you’re living your life the right way. How much better can it get than to have an onlooker see how you react and wonder how you are able to keep your cool? Perhaps it starts a conversation and you’re able to open up about your faith, perhaps they see you and think to themselves “if they can do that, I can too!” Actions speak louder than words sometimes, and quite possibly not saying anything at all can speak volumes!