Proverbs 29:11–"A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back."
When ready Proverbs today, I ran across this verse and stopped. I had to read it again. And again. And again. It convicted me.
It turns out that , according to this verse, I am most certainly a fool. Now I do not desire to be a fool nor do I wish to continue to live life as a fool, however, I fear that my proclivities in this sector of my life have become so engrained that to become a wise man in this regard will truly take a miracle.
You see, I, like many members of my family, are opinionated. And when I say opinionated, I mean that not only do I possess specific opinions on a wide array of topics but, and here's the downfall, I feel that it is my right, nay, my duty to inform the people around me my opinions. This is made all the more important when other's opinions happen to disagree or contradict my own. In such a case as this, I have often been prone to fully venting my spirit in a excited display of opinionated portrayals. In other words, I have exposed that I am both a fool and a jack@$$.
When I read this verse, I immediately tried to dismiss it under the presumption that I must be the wise man. That facade, though, did not last long. Midway into reading the next verse I had to go back and re-read verse 11 to make sure. Yep, I thought to myself, I am a fool.
Therefore, my concluding prayer today is for myself and for all the opinionated fools like me:
May God grant that He would transform our foolish selves so that we would be content in holding back our opinions so that they could be shared quietly, effectively, and wisely.
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