Why Be Harsh?

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You're listening to my Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1356. Today's Devo is called why Be Harsh? Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida.

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And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

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Good morning everybody and happy Monday. My name is Rachelle Alessi and I get to be with you this week. I am truly excited because we are this entire month doing a series with our Proverbs. So all of us, Lauren, Gabby, Stephanie, and myself are going to be doing a proverb each day. And this is actually something we did with our church a couple of years ago where we were reading a proverb every single day of the year. So we would start from proverb one and go all the way to like 30, 31. And we saw how edifying that was to ourselves and our church and how important it is for us to honestly learn about how we can be better Christians and be better in our everyday life. And I think Proverbs, it just provides such wisdom that truly makes a difference and it built a foundation in our character.

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And I think that's really what Proverbs does. It helps our character. And so I hope that you guys are feeling blessed by it so far. And I'm going to be doing Proverbs 15 through 19. And so I have five proverbs for the week, but today we're going to start with 15. And the verses that I want to read are one and two, but really emphasizing number one. And it says, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commands knowledge, but the mouth of the fools pour out folly. This is such an amazing proverb. And it's verse one and two, so it starts strong. I love that it talks about a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Because we all face things every single day and we all have to respond. We have to respond at something every single day. We respond in our work, we respond in our families, we respond in our own personal life with things we're doing.

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We always have to have a response for what's going on. Sometimes there are harder situations where you're handling arguments or you are a little frustrating at somebody, but either way, what this verse shows us is that we have the Power on how we respond.

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We have the power to make a situation better or to make a situation worse. We have the power to use our words to edify somebody or to hurt somebody. And this verse says that a soft answer turns away wrath. It doesn't say the person who is right gets to say what we want to say, or the person who's wrong has to listen to what the other person has to say. This doesn't make somebody right or wrong. It just gives us a principle that a soft answer turns away wrath.

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Which means no matter what we're going through or what situation we are in, we have to choose to give a soft answer. We have to choose to edify people with our words. We have to choose to be more careful with what we say and to maybe take a step back and say, I'm going to think a little bit about this.

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Maybe that's even with our own emotions, maybe what we're thinking, what we're feeling. We have to just take a step back and say, I'm not going to let myself think this about this person because then I know I will have a harsh answer.

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Guys, we don't have to be harsh with people. And even with ourselves, it says that a soft answer turns away wrath. We can be peacemakers in every situation that we walk in because of the way that we think, because of the way that we handle ourselves, the way we respond, and the way that we treat people. So as Christians, this proverb truly encourages us to have soft answers. This does not make you weak. It actually shows control. What this verse is showing us is a fruit of the spirit, which is self control. If you have the spirit inside of you, self control says, I'm not just going to say whatever I want to say. I'm not just going to be angry and respond in anger. I'm going to have self control to say, let me think about this in a godly way. Let me find a solution. Maybe let me bring this argument to an end by saying, this is the area where I did wrong and I'm really sorry. Maybe the approach is saying, let me see what I did wrong first before I go angry at somebody else. And then I can approach my brother, I can approach my sister, I can approach this situation, but knowing that I will not just go and lose it on somebody because I feel angry or because I feel insecure or because I feel sad. We are going to say we're going to have self control to use our words and to use our emotions to edify, to bring peace and to even bring joy and clarity in every area that we walk to.

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So let's pray. Father God, I want to thank you because you say in your word that self control is something we can have because of you.

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Father, thank you for laying out in your word these proverbs to help us be better Christians every single day to help us be better examples in our homes and in our families. Father, I pray that you will help us, that the Holy Spirit will guide us in those moments where we have to respond and that this proverb will be written in our hearts that before we approach something we are going to bring peace with our words and to edify others in whatever area of over our life. In Jesus name we pray.

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Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.