SALT WATER

CLEAN WATER

LIVING WATER

WISDOM AS CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Today I want to talk to you about the words of the wise from Proverbs chapter 15.

I've done 235 of these as of today. My heart has been a 20-year journey to teach the entire Bible so that you can be encouraged anytime you need to be right at the click of your mouse or a subscription that you have to a podcast. I hope this is a blessing to you. So many gems here in Proverbs.

FIRST - one we want to look at is verse 1, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. This proverb has really helped me in conflict resolution. Studies have shown that if you'll simply lower your voice when you're addressing a conflict, it leads to a better outcome. Now this is straight from Proverbs. You're going to want to lower your voice. You're going to want to relax. If you bring negative energy to negative energy, you're going to have an explosion. So you want to bring some calmness, some kindness, and you want to lower your voice and then work on not stirring up anger, but you want to work on peacemaking and you want to work on conflict resolution. Very, very helpful proverb here.

SECOND - Now the next one that we want to look at is verse 2, the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools spurs forth foolishness. So you can do two things with your words, with your tongue. This is all throughout Proverbs. You can use it in the right way or you can use it in the wrong way. See, it says the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly. So you want to use your knowledge not to show off. You want to use your knowledge to build up. You don't want to use your knowledge to self promote. You want to use your knowledge to serve others. That's what the wise person does when it comes to some knowledge.

THIRD - The next one we want to look at is verse 10. Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way and he who hates correction will die. So when you have a child you have to discipline. You have to give feedback. You have to give correction. There's a correlation between the length of the answer that you give and the age of the person and their cognitive ability to understand. Sometimes you just say no without any explanation. Sometimes you give an elaborate explanation, but it always leads to following the recommendation. God is a lot like this in many ways. Sometimes God will just say you'll pray and he'll just say no. Won't necessarily give you insight. You'll just feel that. Sometimes he'll say yes. And then other times in your life God will say no and then he'll give you a bunch of scriptures and a bunch of reasons why you shouldn't engage in a certain behavior or certain course of action. We want to make sure that we don't get harshly disciplined by God. The older you get, well I should say the more mature that you get, the more you're able to manage yourself, the less you need God and other people to do that. You'll choose to manage yourself. How do you manage yourself? Through humility and repentance and obedience.

FOURTH - Now the next one, Proverbs 15, 15, all the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast. So this has to do with perspective. Has to do with gratitude. You know ungrateful people are pretty much never happy. You ever notice that? You get around grateful people. You get around thankful people. They give off a vibe. They give off an energy. It begs the question, are they naturally this way or do they choose it?Is it nature or nurture? Should be a little bit of both, but most often it's people that choose to be thankful, choose to be grateful, choose to be appreciative for what they already have versus being discontent with their future wish list. People lie to themselves when they say I'll be happy when. No you're happy when you choose to be happy and thankful.

LASTLY - And the last one I want to look at today is verse 16, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble. Boy I'm a huge fan of minimalism. My family and I practice this. We try to have very few things. We have I think six bicycles here in the garage. One car. We're constantly going through our things and giving things away to people who might use them. We haven't used them, clothes, furniture, really any item in our home. Why? Because it's better to have a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble. Actually the more treasure you have, the more trouble you have. So you want to lower the things that you have and you want to raise up your thankfulness. You want to lower your possessions and raise up your praise and you want to overflow with a grateful and with a thankful heart.

So many gems here in the book of Proverbs. I'm so glad that you can join me today. Until next time, have a beautiful day.