Proverbs 17:14
We are all familiar with the story of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dyke to avert disaster. Solomon precedes this story with the same description of averting disaster caused by strife with others. If contentions never start, strife never follows. What a simple concept for reducing strife with our fellow-man!
If the practical application was so simple, life would be great. However, we and others fail to stop the predecessor to strife - contention with others. These contentions start by simple acts, sometimes not recognized until too late, or by angry outbursts that produces comments we all later regret. It seems as if it is normal human nature to offend others without recognizing the impact of our actions and words. And it is.
Unless we have the love of Christ in our hearts and allow Him to guide our every thought and deed, we are at risk of offending others. Only through his grace and guidance can we be assured that our thoughts and actions are pure. When we are tempted to do "what everyone else does", we need to stop such action and think how Jesus would have acted in such a situation. He gave us plenty of examples to learn from: scorned, rejected, abused, slandered and crucified. If we truly want to be Christ-like, we need to follow his examples.
So the next time you are tempted to "pop off", stick a finger in the tiny hole so a flood of sinful actions don't follow. It will save you from much pain and strife.
