Proverbs 18:13,  He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

What gets us into the most trouble with each other?

My wife bought a wooden wall plague many years ago, I suppose it reminded HER to lasso her speech.

It was on the wall of the kitchen for many years but several years ago she took it down. She does not need it anymore, no doubt.

The plaque said that a closed mouth gathers no foot. How many times have you have tasted your foot? Why do we continue to test the taste of our foot.

Why do we continue to put our foot in our mouth? This verse says it in a different way than our plaque does, by saying that when we do this it is a folly and a shame unto us.

Is this what the Bible says? Be quick to speak, slow to hear, and quick to get angry.

No! The Bible cautions us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. We are to be slow of speech. There ought to be a built in delay mechanism in our speech patterns.

Some say to count to 10. But some just count to 10 and say it anyway. Maybe some need mouths where the sound doesn't come out until a minute or so after they are opened.

How many times have we said, "Oh, those hasty words we can't recall. How we wish we could catch our words and kill them dead. But we can't do it. We can't do it!

But this verse reminds us that a mouth should be under the control of a disciplined mind. The mind should be in charge.

The mouth should not be a rebel! The mouth must be a servant of the mind. It should not be let loose.

The mind should say to the mouth, "Hold it right there Mr. Mouth, let me think before you open up wide.

Let me hear what is being said before you engage yourself in uninterrupted chatter. Let me be the one to give you something to say if I think it right to say anything at all."