Stay Teachable

Recently, I found myself in several online discussions with a group of people who thought they knew everything there was to know about a particular situation. It was extremely frustrating because they adopted a gang mentality without having many of the facts. Have you ever been in a situation like that?

I have learned that social media gives people a large platform to express things that they would never say to your face. It affords them a boldness or confidence to be as ugly as they possibly can be because they don’t expect to ever run into you in person. How sad that is. One thing about me is that I will never say anything behind someone’s back that I would not be comfortable enough to say to them in person. I don’t have two faces. What you see is what you can always expect to get.

One on one, you have the opportunity to convey with your body language or touch or just with the words that you choose the facts regarding a matter. People can ask questions and you can really express your heart. However, every now and then you run into someone who just assumes that they know everything, and when you encounter someone like that it is impossible to teach them anything. If you’re unfortunate enough to encounter an entire group like that, Heaven help you! That was my recent experience.

In Eccl. 7:9, the Bible says, “Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.” Prov. 26:4 says that we should, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.”

When you encounter a fool, learn to just walk away. You don’t need to defend yourself against their flaming arrows. Intelligent people will be able to tell what the truth is, and those who cannot are not worthy of your time. After all, the Bible also tells us that it’s better to remain silent and be considered a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, right?