A Little Birdie Told Me

Bro. Brad’s Blog brought this verse to my attention, the probable source of today’s title:

Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. (Ecclesiastes 10:20 KJV)

The source of Brad’s blog was the story of President Obama’s comment to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, basically predicting this fall’s election.  Naturally, he wins.

Don’t laugh over those caught by open microphones – there are other ways we get caught that hath wings to tell the matter!

It’s not just since microphones and the internet that people have found their words go much further than they expected. While politicians are adapt at spinning the most ridiculous gaffes into reasonable explanations, most of us just shrink when we’re caught.

We start as children with the game “Gossip” – oh, my! we used to!  Do they still play that game?  Where we sat in a circle, one person whispered to the person on their left, all the way around the clock until the last person repeated aloud and we all laughed at how different it sounds.

Too often it’s played in reality.  I remember once instance when a piece of information was passed on to me as a prayer request. I asked a question, the caller didn’t know the answer and said she would find out.  A few moments later I received a call from the source, telling me the information I had given was in error.  I tried to explain it was a question asked, not information given. We can’t know how anything we say will be received.

We obtain a lot of information one on one by facial expression and body attitude.  Remove those and we’re left with voice inflections. Remove that when we write and we’re left with words that can be misconstrued, misunderstood and sometimes mistrusted. So, it is to our best interest that what we tell others, in any method, is what we mean and nothing more.

So, as found on QuoteDiary.me, before we tell, call, write, we need to THINK:

T – is it true?
H – is it helpful?
I – is it inspiring?
N – is it necessary?
K – is it kind?

Or, we could simply follow scripture in all of our communications:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8 KJV)