Overlooking Offense

PROVERBS 19:11

A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.


Oh how easy it is to let the tongue fly as soon as someone offends us! James 3 talks of how evil the tongue is and how we cannot tame it. Proverbs 18 says the tongue has the power of life and death. I believe we prove these scriptures everyday.

Proverbs 18:4 The words of a man's mouth are deep, but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

Why is it so hard to control such a small part of the body?(James 5:5) It is lack of patience. How do we increase our patience? Proverbs 19:11 says that wisdom brings patience and in that we can overlook offense. How do we increase our wisdom? We get into the Word of God and meditate on it day and night.(Joshua 1:8) Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

If we are truly focusing on God's Word continually then it is less likely that off-color words will fly out of our mouths. The latter part of Luke 6:45 says, "for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh(KJV). My youngest son's Children's Church teacher told him a while back that if we say bad things then our mouth is ugly and that means we have an ugly heart.

Get into the Word, increase your wisdom which will increase your patience, allow God to cleanse your heart, overlook offenses. God Bless~