(Proverbs 26)
WARNING:THIS WILL BE RANDOM IN A CHAPTER ATTACHING WAY.
Random 1 – Do not meddle in a quarrel even if you care about the people involved. (26:17) This is a hard thing to do sometimes… especially, if you care about the people who are having the quarrel. It’s hard not to step into something uninvited so you can solve the issue, but it is necessary that we don’t. Not only do we get in trouble ourselves when we step in uninvited but we also make the situation worse.
Sometimes the most caring thing you can do for people that are fighting each other is stay out of their business…. and pray.
Random 2 – Everyone has issues, and it is really a lot of fun to hear about what is wrong with someone else, in an icky but I can’t stop listening sort of way. What is more invigorating is telling someone else about what you have heard. The feeling of “I’ve got something to tell someone” is hard to not act on. “After all” we think “we aren’t hurting anyone by telling the story.”
We couldn’t be more wrong.
In fact each time we pass on information such as this we make the issue worse and enable the fires of destruction to burn hotter and longer. We need to remember that each time we pass on information that does not shed a good light on someone or an issue they are having, we actually making the situation worse, not better.
So… stop the person from “whispering” to you about someone’s issue and make sure you are not the “whisperer.” For that is the only way “the fire will go out” (26:20)
Random 3 – You’ve felt it before. The sinking feeling that the person you are observing is not presenting themselves as they really are. Their words are sweet and their actions seem true but you know from experience they are covering up “the real them.” (26:24-28)
The point here is not so much we should point those people out as much as it is making sure we do not allow ourselves to live that way.
So that’s what jumped out at me today from this passage…
What did you see?
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