“Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction” (Proverbs 10:14).

They didn’t quite know what to do with Shirley when she started attending their church. She was loud, foul, distasteful, and to be honest, really embarrassing at times. Several of the ladies came to the pastor. Mary humbly asked him, “What are we going to do with Shirley? Our ladies’ Bible study was all ready for prayer when Shirley blurted out, ‘You can pray for that no good husband of mine. I ought to have divorced him years ago. Sleeps around town and doesn’t do me well.’”  Abigail added, “We were so embarrassed, Pastor. She was all ready to tell everyone about their private lives before Candice got her stopped.” The pastor quietly commiserated with them and then took them to Proverbs chapter ten. He read about the fact that a person’s mouth and words are symptomatic of the heart’s condition. It was a precious Bible study with the pastor that day. Together they made a covenant to pray for Shirley’s change of heart that would happen only by personally trusting Christ as Savior. How about you? Can you see the difference between the words of the wise and the foolish? It’s all a matter of the heart.

For today: Guard my words, Lord, by working first in my heart.