“I’ll take ‘Think Before You Speak’, for $200 please, Alex.”
March 24, 2023
Have you ever wished for a built-in button that would prevent you from speaking too hastily? Such a button does exist on the TV show, Jeopardy. Hasty contestants are prevented from answering a question until the game show host has read the entire clue. In the early days of the show, contestants could ring in at any time and that led to many quick guesses, negative scores, and general confusion. Now, as a preventative measure, an offstage staff member activates the contestants’ signaling devices and allows them to answer the question in a timely manner.
While I have never been a contestant on Jeopardy, I have attempted to “signal in too soon” when having a conversation with someone else. I have attempted to finish other people’s sentences, and the result is rarely pretty. Regardless of how well people know each other, hastily completing sentences usually ends in incorrect completion of thoughts, feelings of being rushed and not heard, hurt feelings, and general confusion. Oh, that I had a button that would enable me to speak at just the right time!
Finishing people’s thoughts is one way to be hasty with our words. Answering a question before you have heard it in its entirety is another way. Speaking before thinking about what you will say is yet another. And Solomon in all his wisdom said there is more hope for a fool than a man who is hasty in his words.
Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him. – Proverbs 29:20
Since we do not have built-in devices that prevent our hasty words, we would do well to remember the words of Proverbs 18:13 – “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”, and to follow the advice of James 1:19 – “…let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…”.
I’ll take “Think Before You Speak”, for $200 please, Alex.