Looking Ahead at The Witness Journal: Wisdom in Our Words and Relationships

Learning How Wisdom Sounds

Weekly Anchor: Proverbs 18:21 MSG

“Words kill, words give life;
they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.”

Wisdom has a sound.

Last week, we began our August journey by looking at where wisdom begins. We were reminded that wisdom comes from God, that it is worth more than the things we so easily chase, and that living wisely requires us to pay attention to what is shaping our hearts and directing our steps.

This week, wisdom moves from within us into the spaces between us.

It shows up in conversations.

In the few seconds between hearing something and responding to it.

In the words we choose when we are frustrated.

In whether we listen to understand or simply wait for our opportunity to speak.

In how we respond when someone corrects us.

And sometimes, wisdom is revealed by the words we decide not to say.

Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that words carry extraordinary power. They can wound or restore, discourage or strengthen, divide or reconcile. Our words do more than communicate what we think; they often reveal what has been forming within us.

That is why biblical wisdom cannot remain something we simply know.

Eventually, wisdom has to be heard in the way we live with one another.

Learning How Wisdom Sounds

There are moments when wisdom sounds like silence because we have not listened long enough to answer.

Sometimes it sounds like gentleness when anger would have been easier.

Sometimes it sounds like encouragement spoken into a place that has already been wounded.

Sometimes wisdom sounds like receiving correction without immediately becoming defensive.

And sometimes wisdom sounds like restraint—the decision that everything we think does not need to be spoken.

This week invites us to pay attention not only to what we say, but to what our words and reactions reveal.

Are we listening?

Are our words bringing healing or causing unnecessary wounds?

Can we remain gentle when someone else is not?

Can we receive wisdom from another person, even when correction is uncomfortable?

Can we recognize when the wisest response is no response at all?

These are not simply communication skills.

They are matters of spiritual formation.

Because the wisdom God is developing within us should eventually become recognizable in the way people experience us.

This Week’s Journey

Monday — Listen Before You Answer
Proverbs 18:13

Tuesday — Words That Heal
Proverbs 12:18

Wednesday — The Strength of a Gentle Answer
Proverbs 15:1

Thursday — Wisdom That Listens to Correction
Proverbs 15:31–32

Friday — The Wisdom of Restraint
Proverbs 17:27–28

As We Walk Into the Week

This week, we are going to listen differently—not only to the words coming from other people, but to our own.

We will pay attention to what comes out of us when we are interrupted, misunderstood, challenged, corrected, frustrated, or hurt.

Not so that we can police every sentence or become afraid of saying the wrong thing, but so that we can recognize where God is still teaching us how to respond with wisdom.

Before we speak, can we listen?

Before we react, can we consider what our words will produce?

When correction comes, can we receive what God may be using another person to teach us?

And when we have every opportunity to say something, can we recognize when wisdom is telling us to remain quiet?

Wisdom begins with God, but eventually it becomes visible—and audible—in the way we treat one another.

This week, let’s learn how wisdom sounds.

Father, as we enter another week of learning Your wisdom, teach us to hear ourselves more clearly. Slow us down when we are too quick to answer. Guard our words when frustration rises. Give us humility when correction comes and gentleness when conversations become difficult. Teach us when to speak, what to say, and when wisdom requires silence. May the people who encounter us experience something of You through the way we listen, speak, and respond. Let the wisdom You are forming within us become evident in the way we love one another. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Leona