When to Speak, and When to Be Silent

    Sometimes silence can be violent or diamonds and sadly, in a culture so consumed with social media, the line is becoming more and more blurred. I came across a tweet the other day from @SwedishCanary that said, "Never has a generation so diligently recorded themselves doing nothing." That hit home. It boggles my mind that so many can sit behind a screen and yell and scream and preach, but their lives are selling the opposite from sitting and staying stagnant. Over the past couple of months God has been stretching me more and more out of my comfort zone. That's a story and topic for another time. But my point is: are we really saying what we should be? So in this post I'm going to be speaking about when it's okay to speak and when it's okay to be silent.

    God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, but I wonder how much we would contradict ourselves if He gave us two mouths. In a way, He did. Our second mouth is called our actions. They speak the loudest and they are what determines reactions. This day and age many have the habit of speaking without thinking and it often gets them into trouble. We have filters, but only on Instagram, pic apps, and Twitter. We rarely ever use them for our mouth. Speaking our opinions have become more like partitions than help. Knowing what to say can be more important than when to say it.

So what kind of things are okay to say? 

• Things that express encouragement. (Ephesians 4:29)
• Things that give thanks. (Ephesians 5:4)
• Things that answer gently. (Proverbs 15:4)
• Things that reply graciously. (Colossians 4:6)
• Things that declare truth. (Ephesians 4:24)
• Things that show courtesy. (Titus 3:2)
• Things that mouth righteousness. (Proverbs 12:6)

    There is a time and a place for everything, including your words. Seeking the Lord for discernment in when to say something is also important. Have you ever tried to resolve something with somebody who just wouldn't have it? It's a killer! When people are all riled up at least one, if not all of these three things happen:

1. They're not in the right state of mind. (We've all been here. We're so focused on being right that our state of mind becomes wrong. Our words can be right along with our intentions being wrong.)
2. Their filter is on defense mode. (We feel attacked so we're more concerned about sticking up for ourselves than openly hearing others out.)
3. They won't listen. (We heard what we thought we heard so we just want to speak instead of hearing them honestly.)

    Have you ever gone back to those types of conversations that didn't go well at first after your feelings dissipated? Conversations tend to go much better when you're not on fire. (James 1:19 - "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;") Learning to be silent than what to speak is a tougher feat. It draws me to people so much more when I can tell that they're pondering what was said instead of them piling up what to say. (This is something I definitely can work on.) It is a sign of wisdom to me; and it clearly was in the Bible as well. It even says the foolish man who is silent appears intelligent (Proverbs 17:28). There are so many other good things said in the Bible about those who are silent whose mind remains steadfast on the Lord. I definitely want to develop those characteristics.

These kind of people are:

• Understanding. (Problems 11:12)
• Wise. (Proverbs 29:11)
• Beautiful. (1 Peter 3:3-4)
• Peaceful. (Isaiah 26:3)
• Prudent. (Amos 5:13, Proverbs 10:19, Proverbs 12:23)

    Like I mentioned and demonstrated above, silence is a beautiful thing unless we're being silent about the truth. We are to speak what is true 100% of the time. In that case, let's NOT be silent and NOT back down. Let's NOT be intimidated into silence any longer. What do we have to lose in speaking the truth? I'm not going to say nothing. We will lose our fleshly desires, we will lose our comfort, we will lose our self-dependency, BUT we will NOT lose our souls. So today I encourage you to stand up and speak out now to whoever God lays on your heart!