Beware! Attack-Dog! Attack-People!

No sooner than opening the security gate to feed Vamanos, the longhorn, our mild-mannered, docile Havanese, Bentley, saw a woman walking her Doberman out on the roadway. He literally bounded out the gate to take out that dog. You would have thought that Bentley was a ferocious beast. The other dog was being held back by his owner, while Bentley, who appeared to be the alpha dog, was going in for the kill. He heard me hollering at him and, thank God, he halted his attack. The woman apologized for her dog who, she said “knows better than to react like that” and I did my best to apologize for our alpha, attack-dog! Oh me. The fact is, “Sweet Bentley has a rarely used, big bark and is the friendliest, gentlest dog around. I was thinking Bentley would lose his life to that Doberman, while Bentley was in “Attack Dog! Run-for-your-life-mode!”

I think I've seen some folks like that recently. I'm not name-calling but there’s a lesson here about “by their fruits you will know them". All this nasty name-calling, text and tweet bombing, he-said / she-said attacks. Oh my! I’m ashamed of our political leaders who are certainly not setting a good example for our children, and for that matter, for all of us. Why don’t we have civility instead of being in a disrespectful attack mode?

If we would take the wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs, apply it and make it part of our value and belief system, we could spare hurting others and ourselves with our words. About women, Proverbs 31:25, 26 says: "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." More wisdom from Proverbs 21:23 says "Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble."

We've all been there with some fast-acting, split-second, hateful words that came out. We knew it was too late to take them back. The damage was done. We wished our brain had engaged before our mouths did. I remember a sweet, but powerful little Sunday School song "Be careful little mouth what you say...." How often do we let unnecessary words slip out and we think "What made me say that?"

Psalm 141:3 says "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!" I really do purposely pray for God to put a gate on my mouth. I pray "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord." Psalm 19:13.

Perhaps God wants to spare us, and others, from potential hurt and pain before unkind or unnecessary words slip out. Perhaps He wants to provide "damage control" angels at our Mouth Gates. Perhaps, He would like us to pray for our public leaders and politicians to better portray themselves as wisdom-filled, kind, tolerant examples for us all. Perhaps it's time we sing that little Sunday School song (and mean it) as a prayer "Be careful little mouth what you say."