But Love Covers All Transgressions

He who winks the eye causes trouble, And a babbling fool will be ruined.The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions.PROVERBS 10:10-12 NASB

Today I am struggling with the power of words. The natural tendency is to take this verse and think it applies to someone else; to objectify the behavior as belonging to a certain kind of person.  But humans are rarely all of one thing or another.  We are complicated.

These verses speak of hatred stirring up strife and when I overlay the flavor-of-the-day trouble I can hear myself back pedal and sanitize my anger... calling it concern instead of hateful. I don't think of myself as being that way. It occurs to me that we can sometimes be the worst version of ourselves and say mean things without thinking of ourselves as troublemakers, fools or wicked as the verses describe.

We get caught in the moment of carelessness and once a thing is said we then have a choice. We either have to own it as truth or disown it as not being truth, but maybe a reaction to an emotion or a perception.

How wedded we are to our own authority or power will dictate the lengths we are willing to go to save face. And so when we want to be perceived as righteous it's the "other" who is wicked.

I think that when we harbor this wickedness within, but refuse to disown it, let alone even look at it, we end up concealing the violence in our hearts. To validate our state we stir up others to see it from our perspective... This validation enables us to nurture our own hurts, disappointments and the subsequent bad behavior and rebellion that follows as justification.

Lord, help me admit when I am the worst version of myself, when I stir up trouble, act wickedly or foolishly. Help me seek your approval instead of mans. I don't want my desire to be "right" put me in a place where I cannot back down or be transparent when I behave badly. I desperately need your love that covers my sin. Amen.