“Responding in Love” sometimes is “Saying Nothing At All”

Quote: “Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.” – Oswald Chambers

Scripture: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, Lord.” – Psalm 19:14

Some Thoughts: We live in a world of negativity.  There is unrest and questioning of what is “truth” and what is not. There are people who seem to be just waiting for a chance to argue. It just seems human nature to want to argue or vindicate ourselves. These verses talk about not getting sucked into arguments: “Don’t answer fools when they speak foolishly, or you will be just like them.” – Proverbs 26:4 NCV

“Stay away from those who have foolish arguments and talk about useless family histories and argue and quarrel about the law. Those things are worth nothing and will not help anyone” –Titus 3:9 NCV

“Just as charcoal and wood keep a fire going, a quarrelsome person keeps an argument going” – Proverbs 26:21 NCV

Jesus says: “And I tell you that on the Judgment Day people will be responsible for every careless thing they have said” – Matthew 12:36 NCV

That verse “gets me” every time! One day we are going to give an account of every word we’ve spoken aloud, on our computer, in our texts… That should cause us to stop and think.  How much better off we’d be if we would ask “Is that You, Lord?” before responding – based on our own understanding, based on our heightened emotions, based on our pride or need to defend ourselves, based on our own ego. It is so, so, so important to pray this prayer: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord.” – Psalm 19:14 (The Living Bible says it this way: “May myspoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and myRedeemer.”)

I pray this verse nearly every morning! I need the reminder. Do I agree

with everything I hear on the news or everything I see on social media or even hear come out of someone’s mouth during a conversation together? No.  But the relationship is more important to me than “winning” an argument.

One of the things I remember from a class Jeff and I once took is that “listening from a posture of “acceptance” doesn’t mean “agreement.” Sometimes the best thing we can do is “listen” and bite our tongue. We can “accept” the person and consider the reasons they are saying what they are saying, but we don’t have to “agree.” Praying for those argumentative people in our lives will help us to love and “accept” the person, even though we are “at odds” with each other.

Love wins every time. I used to tell my own children that it takes two to fight; otherwise the person is just having a boxing match with him/herself. I think that we push people away from Christ when we take the stance of a “boxer” with fists ready to punch, rather than arms wide open. Arms wide open sends the message “I love you this much.”

Prayer: Lord, may we be peace makers. May we reflect light and love and Your radiance in a world of hate, violence, and anger.  May we have a gentle spirit that loves the person – not the behaviors. The Serenity Prayer says it so beautifully: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.” (Reinhold Niebuhr) Amen.

P.S. Someone said, “God help me accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can and the wisdom to know it’s me.” – anonymous

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