He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
Proverbs 13:3
Do you remember when television stations used to go off air? Once everything was said for the day the screen would go to a familiar pattern and that would be all that would be broadcast for a few hours at least. In reading and re-reading through the Proverbs each month I am always struck at how many of them are about the spoken word. They are a special caution to our modern time which almost never knows silence. This lack of silence seems to infect our conversations and time with others as well. Rather than allowing a quiet and understanding silence we feel compelled to fill the air with any talk, regardless of how empty, awful or destructive those words may be. The speech pattern “awkward silence” has become very common phrase in our regular speech, so common that any silence is viewed as being awkward. Becoming comfortable with silence in our private life may be exactly what is needed to become comfortable with silence in our social life, and that comfort with silence may be life-saving, in the right situation.
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