From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks

Background: I listen to the words my children use and I marvel at how they choose words that depict the intensity of how they feel inside. For example the little one frequently says he loves one of his friends (who happens to be a girl), but he doesn’t mean it in a romantic way, but its the strongest word he can find to describe how much he enjoys playing with her. The other son uses his words strongly, but I won’t go any further.

26 She opens her mouth in skillful and godly Wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness [giving counsel and instruction].

Lets say there is a pitcher of juice on a table and you are thirsty. But its not just any juice, it your favorite type of juice. How do you know what kind of juice it is? The pitcher is labeled. Your expectation is turned up as you pour, your mouth is watering. As you look at your cup and the liquid that is in it, you notice this is not the juice you were expecting. Matter-of-fact it’s not juice at all. Now you’re upset, and not willing to trust the labels on this particular table of beverages. All this talk about juice is simply an analogy of how we present ourselves one way, but only what is in us will come out.

Skillful and Godly wisdom, the law of kindness, these are not automatic. Its like a medical student saying they can perform a complex surgery when they’ve never completed a residency or fellowship to learn hands on from a professional how to do that. The same goes for us. We will not be able to skillfully display wisdom and kindness if we have never been taught how. And this isn’t something you learn at the university. It takes a Bible, some life experience and some real solid, P31 role models to be able to pour out wisdom and kindness with skill.  The ‘with skill’ part is just as important as the wisdom and kindness. You could be pouring out wisdom on someone who cannot receive it or being kind when a firm hand is needed.

We aren’t born with the ability to be wise and kind, so it must be learned. We are all capable of learning so we are all capable of developing the skill of dishing out Godly wisdom and kindness. I said before that it takes a Bible, life experience and a strong role model. The Bible is the foundation for anything we are trying to build upon in our lives. It has the basic definitions and examples we need to model ourselves after. A strong role model can give us specific teaching and correct us when we are wrong. We can watch them and learn techniques for various situations they go through. Life experience is how we determine that we have mastered what we have learned.

As we go through our life experiences, sometimes what comes out of us is a weak version of the P31 wisdom and kindness, but we must continue to develop and challenge ourselves so that we can display wisdom and kindness with great skill. And if you foul up a few opportunities to display your skill, don’t be discouraged, the rest of us have been there, just don’t quit.

References: Proverbs 31:26