Say What We Mean and Mean What We Say

Many of us have been in the company of others who think they know everything but when they open their mouths very little wisdom is detected. 

Know-it-alls have very little respect for those around them and lie through their teeth to save face when the truth about a situation is exposed. 

The person who wrote the following Psalm is asking God for help to deal with people like this who lived in his community.

Help, Lord! No one does what is right anymore.  Those who are faithful have disappeared from the human race.  Everyone tells lies to their neighbors.  With their lips they praise others, but they don’t really mean it. 

May the Lord close all lips that don’t mean what they say.  May he stop every tongue that brags. 

They say, “What we speak with our tongues will win the battle.  What we say with our lips will keep us safe.  No one will have victory over us.”

Psalm 12:1-4

When we ourselves were living in a dysfunctional lifestyle, we were one of those “know it alls” who thought  we knew what was best for us. 

Too often we told it like we thought it was and that was the end of any discussion about the harm we were causing ourselves and our loved ones. 

We lied to others.  We made promises we had no intention of keeping.  We moved along in self-will until life was so unmanageable we didn’t even know what to do with ourselves.

Unfortunately this pattern of thinking “It’s best if I do things my own way” - is closer to us than we might wish even though we are seeking to live in a new way today.  We need God’s help to live in a new way.

Loving God, we want to live as the persons You have created us to be.  We want to live to “say what we mean and mean what we say.”  Please guide us today as we go about our responsibilities. 

Show us a safe path and give us strength to persevere in what is right and good even when the going is tough.

We ask Your forgiveness for the many times we’ve lived in the arrogance of thinking that our ways are better than Your ways. 

Once again today we humbly acknowledge that only in Your will and care do we find the treasures of wisdom and knowledge we seek and then are able to “say what we mean and mean what we say.”  Amen