That Wise Bird
by Gary Henry
via WordPoints.com
"So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19).
Our possession of two ears and only one mouth is not an accident. Since we learn more by listening than talking, listening is more valuable from a practical standpoint, but as James indicates, being reserved in our speech is also in our best interest spiritually: “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Saying too much often gets us into trouble, whereas listening too much rarely does.
There are certainly people who are so shy they would never speak up and share their thoughts, even in a small group of friends. However, others speak up in every group they are part of. They can’t imagine any possible discussion that the wisdom of their spoken word wouldn’t benefit.
I was in a graduate seminar years ago when an overly talkative member of the seminar made another one of the superfluous comments for which he was well known, and the student sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, “George learned early in life, ‘He who does not blow his own horn, for him shall no horn be blown.’”
How honestly do we confront the danger of talking too much? “The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet” (Proverbs 10:19 GNB). Quitting while we’re ahead is not something we find it easy to do, so it’s just a matter of time until we do damage that could have been avoided.
Ironically, we would “say more” if we “talked less.” Those of us who were blessed to know Paul Earnhart remember him for his quiet discipline. In many situations, he didn’t have much to say, but when he did speak up, his words carried weight. Unlike him, most of us talk so much, we don’t say anything. Like inflated money, our words are so superabundant that they aren’t worth very much.
So, I’m afraid there’s no way around it: we need to cut down on our talking. Just as we can’t eat all we want and still be healthy, we can’t say everything we want and still be a blessing to others. Listening, rather than talking, is what we need to develop.
There was an owl that liv’d in an oak;
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard —
O, if we all were like that wise bird!(Anonymous)
