Talk once, think twice

I was flicking through Proverbs earlier in an Oooh-I-can-quote-more-out-of-context-Bible-verses-than-you-can-right-now-game with a friend earlier, and I was really struck by the amount of sayings about talking, words etc.

Here's a tiny little sample:

10:8 The wise in heart accept commands,
but a chattering fool comes to ruin.
10:19 When words are many, sin is not absent,
but he who holds his tongue is wise.
11:9 With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbor,
but through knowledge the righteous escape.
12:6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
but the speech of the upright rescues them.
13:3 He who guards his lips guards his life,
but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.

It reminds me of a post I blogged two years ago: Did you hear? (heehee, look at me referencing myself).

More importantly it reminded me of two big relational issues I'd dealt with lately: a work colleague who didn't fulfill his part of a project requirement with the result that the other team members had to do much much more, and a friend who hasn't been as honest with me as I thought she was. In both these contexts, I didn't trust my own judgement of the situation as I was more affected by both situations than I thought, and turned to others for rational, logical advice (e.g. somehow I didn't think that ninja-chopping him and chucking him into a dark storeroom was a good idea).

Now, I have always been wary of anger and being angry as I have seen the ugly consequences of indulging in unnecessary anger in the lives of people close to me. But as I started talking to other people, I realized that I was still so angry about these things, instead of just calmly recounting the facts, I was in danger of crucifying The Offenders (what a cool band name, eh). I also tend to be quite dramatic at times, so even as I was asking my friends for advice, I realized I was making everything seem so much worse. Yuck. Yucky, yuck. Hmm. It's true what the Bible says:

12:18 Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Let's be careful in how we talk...

PS Bill Watterson (cartoonist of Calvin & Hobbes says: “Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Probably so we can think twice.” :)