\u201cThe mind of the righteous person thinks before answering, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil things.\u201d Proverbs 15:28 CSB
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are entering the dog days of summer, otherwise known as August. The heat is at its highest, the sun is at its brightest and the kids only have a few weeks of summer left before they head back to school. In honor of this very special time of year, we\u2019re going to take a look at Scripture through the lens of a dog\u2019s philosophy:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen More Than You Speak<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Always Act Like You have a Purpose<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Appreciate a Simple Life<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Give More than You Receive<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be Happy with what You Have<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be a Best Friend
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a lot of wisdom in those topics we can all use. Starting with thinking before you speak. An article titled \u201cThink Before You Speak\u201d by Shirley Vandersteen, Ph. D., R. Psych. Sums up the power of words beautifully:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour speech shapes your life. Time and again you find yourself in situations where the outcome depends on what you say and how you say it. Your words are a reflection of who you are. If your words are getting you into trouble, you\u2019re showing others the very worst parts of you. You\u2019re presenting yourself as being thoughtless, careless or just plain hurtful.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we say shapes who we are, it shapes what others think of us. Have you ever realized how much of your relationship with God is God listening to us? He listens more than He speaks. We hear people all the time waiting to \u201chear\u201d from God. God is an active listener, He\u2019s not an active speaker. I\u2019m not saying He doesn\u2019t speak, He absolutely does, but if you compare it to the amount of listening He does, listening wins. We can learn from His wisdom, we can become better listeners, less speakers. One way we can do that is by stopping and thinking about what we are saying or want to say. Often times, when we do this one thing, we\u2019ll listen more than we speak. We realize quickly, what we want to say isn\u2019t going to help the situation, only hurt it. We also realize, we can\u2019t take it back once it is said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we kick off the Dog Days of Summer, let\u2019s learn from Man\u2019s Best Friend, God AND Dogs. Let\u2019s listen more than we speak.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe mind of the righteous person thinks before answering, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil things.\u201d Proverbs 15:28 CSB We are entering the dog days of summer, otherwise known as August. The heat is at its highest, the sun is at its brightest and the kids only have a few weeks of… Continue reading THINK BEFORE ANSWERING<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}