30 Days of Proverbs: November 6th

November 6, 2017
Proverbs 6: Life Counsel 

"If you have been snared with the words of your mouth,
Have been caught with the words of your mouth,
Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself;
Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor,
Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. 
Do not give sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids;
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand,
And like a bird from the hand of the fowler."
Proverbs 6:2-5

 Caught saying things you shouldn't? 

DO WHAT THESE VERSES SAY. 

Eating crow is THE WORST. Humble pie goes down like 14 stale saltines without water. 

ASK ME HOW I KNOW. 

I have hurt so many people with my tongue. Some have been hurt unintentionally, but if I'm being totally transparent- most have been 100% my fault. When I'm feeling weak or insecure or bloated from too many chicken wings, it's easy for me to make myself feel better by dissecting others. The damage that can be done by three minutes of an unguarded tongue can last a lifetime. 

When I'm snide and sarcastic (Bless their hearts...) and salty (Am I too old to use hip lingo??) not only am I hurting the person I'm talking about, I'm damaging my relationship with the person I'm talking TO. Think about it: If you're looking to establish a solid, long lasting relationship with a friend, do you really want to establish that by critiquing others? A foundation like that is fragile AT BEST. Connect with someone and find Your Person by building up others together and in turn, your relationship with each other will be rock solid. AND WE WONDER WHY IT IS SO HARD TO FIND GOOD GIRLFRIENDS. 

Mercy sakes alive. 

I love the reminder we read at the end of verse three to go and humble yourself when you've sinned and said things you shouldn't. Solomon doesn't tell us to get defensive or to justify our words with back story or to drag other people that may have been in the conversation down with us- HE TELLS US TO SWALLOW OUR PRIDE AND BEG FOR FORGIVENESS. 

It's suuuuper easy for me to jump to the defensive when I've been caught in sinful conversations. I want to cajole my way out of it with ill-timed jokes and deflecting comments. I'll dance around the issue like a ballerina whose shoes are on fire but sucking it up, admitting I was wrong and asking for forgiveness is the hardest thing of all the things. But do you want to know what the pay off is?? GUILT FREE SLEEP. I might have to battle stress sweating and conflict nausea for the 10 minutes while I own up to my mistake, but afterwards I get to go home AND NOT EVER OVER ANALYZE IT EVER, EVER AGAIN.

And you can't put a price on that.

 (You can ask me because I'm basically the Queen of replaying awkward conversations in my mind at 2:17am. I still think about the time I made a Freudian slip to two boys that were a year ahead of me in the high school cafeteria lunch line and I STILL GET THE NERVOUS SWEATS WHEN I REMEMBER IT. I'll never be able to look at square pizza slices without shuddering. Horrifying.) 

Read these verses a few times today and remember to love each other and build people up, no matter how badly you might feel about your hair at the moment. 

Have a Christ-filled day! And thanks for stopping by~ Katie.