Have you ever just been bursting at the seams with something to say but you just know in your knower that the best thing to do is just keep your thoughts to yourself?

This is something I’ve been learning over the years and it’s rarely an easy lesson. Proverbs 10:19 says: “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent,” while Ecclesiastes 5:3 says that “a fool’s voice with many words.”

It seems to me that this is one of the inherent dangers of blogging. For some reason, otherwise meek young men (it more often than not seems to be young men, doesn’t it?), think they become lions behind a keyboard. Now, everyone (including me) thinks that they have something to say and the entire world should have the chance to hear it. Not only that, blogging often provides the little guy with a chance to throw lobs at a big(ger) guy who might normally remain entirely out of reach.

But love believes all things (1 Corinthians 13:7) and demands we treat others, not just like we would like to be treated (Matthew 7:12), but better (Philippians 2:3) and the tongue is a small but powerful force that can be used for either healing or destruction (James 3).

It should not surprise us that the best wisdom is rooted in Scripture. Our mothers told us that if we didn’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all. Something I need to be reminded of as I seek to stay silent, seeking to think the best. I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”