Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 431 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

A Tongue Can Bring Life or Death - Proverbs 18:13-24

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 431 of our trek, and today is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore the 2nd half of Chapter 18.

We are broadcasting from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. On Sunday after church, we headed back to Indian Trail and arrived by late evening. Our plans to watch the fireworks display at Marietta’s Sternwheel Festival were canceled due to a line of severe thunderstorms that went through Marietta that evening. Although they ended up having the fireworks after the storms, we decided that we did not want to deal with the crowds and wet grass. There will be other years to enjoy it in the future.

We are back in the thick of work with many projects and client work on our schedule for this week, but for now, it’s time to break camp and head out on our trail in search of those golden nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. One nugget King Solomon continually emphasizes is how we speak. It is a continual theme on today’s trek also. How we speak to others is so important it can literally bring life or death as verse 21 starts out with is…

A Tongue Can Bring Life or Death

Let’s start our trek with verse 13.

 13 Spouting off before listening to the facts

is both shameful and foolish.

We all fall into this trap, don’t we? In many conversations, we are so busy preparing our reply we are not really listening to what is being said. This type of communication is shameful and makes us a fool. A truly wise person will speak little and listen much to hear what is really being said.  There is much to learn from a conversation of what is not being said by others, but we can only hear it if we keep our own mouth shut.

14 The human spirit can endure a sick body,

but who can bear a crushed spirit?

We can endure much physically and still survive, but once a person’s spirit is wounded or destroyed that person will be defeated. We need to be very careful not to abuse others physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Words can cut a deeper wound than physical abuse.

15 Intelligent people are always ready to learn.

Their ears are open for knowledge.

The key to becoming a truly intelligent person is to keep your mouth shut and ears open. I have yet to learn anything when I am speaking myself, other than to realize how foolish I sound at times. Let us make it a habit of listening and learning, then speak only when it is appropriate or to ask questions so we can learn more.

 

16 Giving a gift can open doors;

it gives access to important people!

Within today’s political environment, we see how this is so true. Gifts for political favors seem to be an epidemic.  It probably has always been the case, as it is mentioned a few times within the book of Proverbs. This does not always have to be a bad situation, but let me ask this question, “How willing are you to give gifts to others with no expectation of anything in return?” That is the truest form of love and compassion.

 

17 The first to speak in court sounds right—

until the cross-examination begins.

We see this situation so often in court but also in regular dialog with others. When someone presents their case or argument, they may sound very convincing at least until the opposing counsel has the opportunity to present their case.