Surprised by People’s Mouths

Have you ever been surprised by what comes out of your mouth or what comes out of the mouth of others? It seems we all make the mistake of talking before we think. The question is why? Why do people embrace themselves, and for that fact, why do we embrace ourselves by speaking things that are not factual or down right lies?

Lately, I have been immersing myself in the book of Proverbs. I once listened to a Christian teacher who really impressed me with not only his words but his understanding. At the end of the lecture, I went up to him and asked him what made the biggest change in his thinking to ground him so well. Without blinking an eye he said, “I have been reading Proverbs every day for the last 10 years regardless of whatever else I read”. I was determined to test his advise and started to do the same. Within a short period of tim,e I realized my thinking was so much clearer and my reasoning was so much better. That encounter changed my life. One short conversation that lasted no more than 5 minutes gave me the key to a better mind, which started to reshape my soul. That conversation happened when I was 22 years old and I am now 66 years old.

King Solomon of Israel penned words of wisdom so long ago that still work today if applied correctly. Solomon talked about children having “Foolishness” bound up in their souls and their parents were called to correct and adjust this character defect. How many parents today feel they can and should let their children find their own way in life and not hinder their creative bent? We now have “Free Range” kids that never corrected their perception on life and think everyone and everything in life is for their pleasure and amusement instead of seeing their lives and a special gift to help the world in which they live.

Proverbs 22:15 (NASB)

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

Recently I wrote about the naive inheriting foolishness. Being naive means we are untrained or uneducated. If our parents didn’t train us, we inherit foolishness and as adults I can attest that it is so hard to correct this value in our souls later, rather than when we are young.

Proverbs 14:18 (NASB)

The naive inherit foolishness, but the sensible are crowned with knowledge.

Once we are in our teens our character and souls are taking on a consistent state, whether for good or bad. If foolishness is a predominate characteristic, it supersedes all our other qualities. It ruins our opportunities and thus we turn to dishonest gain. If you have ever tried to help a person coming into a relationship with Christ, you know that although they are forgiven of their past sins they often struggle desperately with changing their past mistakes and choices. They have the desire to change, but foolishness is bound in their souls which often takes a long time and hard work to remove from their lives. I started to shop lift merchandise from stores when I was 5 yeas old. I watched my father change the price tags on merchandise so he paid a cheaper price. He when to building sites and took building supplies at night or on the weekend. Instead of teaching me right from wrong, he taught me to learn to be shrewd and get away with stealing. My dad did not know the Lord until the last half hour of his life. His father did not teach him and had I not found Christ at 17 years old, the cycle would have been past down to my kids.

Proverbs 18:2 

A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind.

Foolishness trains us to speak without thinking. Acting without clearly seeing the moral right or wrongness of things and living supremely for self. Seeing Jesus and how he lived exposed the love of God and it also showed his character. Jesus demonstrated to all humanity how man was meant to live. For thirty years, scripture does not say Jesus did miracles, preached and taught. He lived under his parents authority even though he was the Son of God.

Philippians 2:3-8 (NASB)

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus demonstrated that even when people say vile things to us, we can hold our tongue. When we are in a heated conversation, we can watch what comes out of our mouth. When the thoughts of saying something destructive flood our mind, we can measure our words and say only what the Holy Spirit guides us to say. Foolishness doesn’t have to rule our lives because we were fools for so long before coming to Christ. We can be renewed in the spirit of our minds and our souls can be changed for the better. No long do we need to be ruled by our old patterns of behavior but with the same character as Jesus Christ.

Questions:

Have you noticed that your mouth speaks before your brain was engaged? Ask God to renew your mind.

Do you need a pathway to change your thinking? Start reading Proverbs every day for 30 days and see the difference.

Love the Word of God that sets us free from our past foolishness.

Pastor Dale