Because I have the gift of communication and generally enjoy speaking, being silent is a discipline for me. Proverbs 10:19 says…

Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.

Why do the prudent hold their tongues? What is so dangerous and foolish about talking all the time? To answer these questions I believe we must dig beneath the surface. Wisdom and folly don’t necessarily lie in the quantity of the words that we speak but rather in the quality of the words that we speak. In order to speak words that have quality, we must be strong in listening to God and to people.

God is the author of wisdom and prudence so we cannot hope for either if we refuse to listen to God. Admittedly, listening to God is a difficult subject if you approach it in authenticity. People who flippantly claim to hear God speak on a regular basis make me nervous. That being said, God is a good Father who wants to speak to his kids and it is therefore upon us to seek to listen to him.

Listening to people…this can be tough. It’s one thing to listen intellectually but another thing to listen with our hearts. We cannot hope to speak with wisdom if we refuse to listen to people with our hearts. Listening to people like this requires that we have an openness or a capacity to listen to people. The trouble with capacity is that most of us have so much going on inside that we have very little room to listen deeply to others.

People who talk a lot and don’t listen demonstrate that they really don’t have much to say. Not talking doesn’t guarantee that we have a lot to say but it may be an indication that we do. What is the goal in a conversation for you? To be heard? To be understood or to understand? These questions and others like it are worth considering if we want to add value to the lives of those around us.