"Don't Repeat It"

".... and he that soweth discord among brethren." Proverbs 6:19b

Have you ever had a conversation with someone- perhaps a family member, a friend or a fellow employee- and the conversation contained some "negative" ideas or opinions about someone else? For example, this happened just recently to someone I know. They received a call from a family member and during the course of the conversation this family member made some not so "edifying" remarks about their sister's son. They stated how they felt about him and it was not very "positive". The tendency is to want to tell someone else about the conversation-- especially the sister.

I saw this situation as a perfect example of what the Lord meant in our verse above. If this person had not had wisdom in knowing to keep their mouth shut, instead of telling the sister, it would have caused seeds of discord to be sown in the family. The sister would have gotten angry at the family member who had made the remarks, and would have probably told her son, who then in turn would have had bad feelings toward this person also.

Am I saying what the family member did was right in talking about this son? No, if they had a problem with him they should have gone to him and told him themself and seen if they could have gotten their differences, or misunderstandings, resolved. But they didn't choose to go that route, they chose to talk about them to someone else instead. Talking about them only opened up the door to the enemy to cause discord and hard feelings. But if it had been repeated by the one it was said to, it would have only added "fuel to the fire".

We have to learn when to speak and when to keep our mouths shut. We don't want to be guilty of causing discord, trouble, hurt feeling or division between anyone. If you'll go back and read the couple of verses prior to this morning's verse, you'll see that this is listed among the things that God hates. Therefore, if He hates it, we should too and we should do everything in our power not to be guilty of it.

Have a great day. Are you sowing seeds of discord by repeating things that are better left unsaid?