Even a fool,
when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; When he shutteth his lips, he is
esteemed as prudent (Proverbs 17:28
ASV).
I had been reading the story
of Nabal, Abigail and David from the book of I Samuel. I was in awe over the
wisdom Abigail displayed on two different occasions when dealing with her
bad-tempered husband Nabal. At one
point, her household was in great danger of attack from David and his army of
600 men. This was due to the arrogant and ill-mannered response of Nabal when
David was need of his hospitality and assistance. Abigail did something I often
fail to do—she kept her mouth shut and chose to wait until a later time to
approach Nabal. In the meantime, she addressed the issue with David using both
grace and humility.
After I completed reading and
studying the passage, I called my husband as I was in route to meet my sister
for our Wednesday night walk. While walking, my sister and I catch up with the
day-to-day happenings in our lives. I told her that I felt a bit bad because I
had just gotten off the phone with my husband and once again approached him
about our financial struggles and changes needed in our business. He asked me
to wait and address it when he returned from out of town. He said, “I need to
focus on the positive in order to acquire the two sales I am currently trying
to make.” I obviously picked an
inopportune time to bring up this sensitive issue.
As we continued walking, my
sister told me how each Saturday she asked everyone in her household to help
her with the weekly menu, but generally gets very little response. So she does
the best she can in her menu planning. She continued telling me how she cooked
some quesadillas the other night and when her husband arrived home he said,
“Don’t give me any of those.” She wanted
to respond, but instead she said nothing, continued cooking, set the table and
told everyone to come eat. Her husband came to the table, ate what she cooked
and never said a word.
Prior to the conversation with my husband, I
had written these words to ponder, “Sometimes not opening our mouth shows much
wisdom.” I read it, I wrote it, but I did not practice it. My sister on the
other hand, did! She wasn’t dealing with
an army of 600 like Abigail, but sometimes when trying to cook and please a variety
of people and taste buds; it feels like you’re dealing with an army of 800!
When the potential for confrontation arose, she made the wise choice and kept
her mouth shut.
We are told of the value of
keeping our mouths shut in the book of Proverbs. It says, Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; When he
shutteth his lips, he is esteemed as prudent (17:28 ASV). Maybe I
failed on this occasion, but if I continue to surround myself with good
examples like Abigail and my sister, then I’m bound to get it right eventually!
Michele
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