Sometimes I should have kept silent

     A few years ago I saw a woman that I didn't know at the grocery store.  She looked pregnant to me so I asked her when she was due.  Wrong question.  She wasn't pregnant, offended and let me know it.  I should have kept silent.  I told a passerby "God bless you."  They retorted, "You don't even know me.  I am a ________ and don't believe in God."  I should have kept silent.  I asked my teenage son a personal question and was blasted as it was none of my business.  I should have kept silent.  Don't get me wrong, I think that at the prompting of the Holy Spirit we should all say what God wants us to say.  It's the times that the "me" instead of God speaks that I tend to get in trouble.  There are times and places where we should keep silent and other times when we shouldn't.  If you have had any of these moments in your life, you know what I mean.  The trick is to know when and where and what to say what we do.  As a young man I was quite comfortable with all my knowledge and thought I could pretty much take care of any situation.  I was wrong.  There were so many times I should have kept silent.  Speaking what's on our minds is not speaking what is on God's mind.
     Being silent means we are more apt to listen.  Listen to the Holy Spirit, common sense, and experience.  Now that I'm 63 there is more listening than talking in my life.  The Holy Spirit still speaks (he won't stop) and commonsense and experience is much greater as parts of my life.  Listening to those who are talking I am better able to understand them and know where to go in conversation.  My family has been constantly amazed when I'm around people and someone just out of the blue begins to tell me their life story.  It's happened so often that my family and friends are no longer surprised, embarrassed or puzzled by what happens next.  People sense what other people are about.  They know, for instance, your emotions and can sense whether you will listen to them or not.  When you are in that space, the Lord opens the opportunity to speak what he has to say to that person.  Sometimes I'm surprised myself!  One incident stands out from my past.  I was a police officer on duty.  I stopped a car driving erratically and asked the driver to step to the sidewalk.  He was weeping and very upset.  I began to ask him standard questions when the word of the Lord took over.  I told the young man that he was upset because his parents had just kicked him out.  He stopped everything and asked me how I knew.  In response to his question the word of the Lord took over again and said, "It's because you told them you were gay."  He was astounded as was my partner.  He told me that that was right.  I went on to tell him about Jesus and what he needed to do to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. 
     Now this kind of thing doesn't happen every day.  It does happen enough that I'm perfectly comfortable with it.  When the moment is right and God is speaking to you there is a peace inside of your.  Experience and knowledge are essential in speaking the Word to people.  In order to do so there needs to be two times of silence.  The first is being silent before God.  Here is the reason Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount.  Pondering this piece of Scripture lets us know the reason to have the mind of Christ and God's motive when we listen to others.  If we are, for example, consumed by the worries and cares of the day, focusing on what hasn't or has happened, and thus preoccupied by everything Satan has thrown at you to keep you from being available, we can't listen.  The second time to be silent is when someone is telling their story.  People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care.  Being genuine and listening foster an atmosphere where people want to talk with you.  That's where God wants you and I.  It's always your choice.