"WORDS!"

Ecclesiastes 5:1-2;
"1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of GOD. To draw near to LISTEN is BETTER than to offer the SACRIFICE OF FOOLS, for they do not know they are doing evil.
2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before GOD, for GOD is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your "WORDS" be few.......

....6 LET NOT YOUR MOUTH LEAD YOU INTO SIN, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should GOD be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?"


From my youth I have been taught "You can't learn with your mouth wide open", and the main thing I have learned with my mouth is open is that my mouth is usually open too much!  As I have matured, I have come to understand that you can't impart knowledge, no matter how well-intentioned, unless a person is willing to receive that knowledge in a way that is helpful to themselves.  The most effective teachers I have observed have used their "WORDS" effectively and wisely (not in mass) to get their point across!

The "WORDS" we use generally determine what people think of us, more bluntly, what we are known by.  Many times I have used "WORDS" that were not exactly what I felt and those "WORDS" came back to haunt me!  King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:1 "to draw near to LISTEN is BETTER than to offer the SACRIFICE OF FOOLS, for they do not know they are doing evil"!  King Solomon said it is better to LISTEN than to attempt to offer "WORDS" that are accepted as a SACRIFICE OF FOOLS!  This person (from experience) may not even "know they are doing evil"!!

Great care should be taken before we let our mouths lead us into sin!  Our "WORDS" may be revealing what we will be known by.  Proverbs 17:28 says "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent".  If, in fact, we are known by the "WORDS" we use, and a fool is considered wise even when he is silent, perhaps my "WORDS" should be FEW???