June 6, 2024

Proverbs 12.16 (NIV)
A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Your position may be right and your anger may be righteous, but rage opens the door for Satan to win two victories.*

I bought an ornament for my sister one Christmas. When I got it home, I decided to take it out of the box and look at it. Good thing I did because the box was empty! So off to Hallmark I went. I was very annoyed when the clerk told me she couldn’t help me. She said they didn’t carry that product in their store. I got all huffy and said, “Well, I got it here.” Then her words sunk in and it hit me: I had bought the gift at the Christian bookstore.

No one insulted me during that incident but I was certainly an annoyed fool. I try to live by the advice in James 1.19: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” If I had followed those steps that day, I would have heard what the clerk was saying; I would not have said what I said (with my mouth and with my body language!); and I would have realized that I had nothing to be angry about. 

In my prideful desire to be the cleverest one in the room, I often say unkind and/or unnecessary things. Jesus, who had the Words of Life, prudently kept his thoughts to himself as he stood before his accusers (Matthew 27.12; Mark 14.60, 61; Luke 23.9). I pray that we can follow his example of saving our “clever” replies for the appropriate time and place.

The silence of the Lamb of God still speaks volumes.*