What’s that you say? Keep It Shut!!


For the next bunch of weeks, I’ll be having a mini series of blog posts centering around Karen Ehman’s new book, Keep It Shut.

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Karen is a Proverbs 31 teacher, speaker and author. I have enjoyed reading her blog very much over the last year. When Karen asked for a “street team” to receive an advanced copy of the book and then to talk about that book on social media, I jumped at the chance. Plus…I sometimes have a hard time keeping my mouth quiet when I should. Sound like anyone you know?

To get started, take a look at the book trailer to see if this resonates with you at all?

 

The book is about learning when to use your words and when not to use your words in accordance with scripture. When is it ok to speak your mind? How can you speak your mind prayerfully? When does a discussion become gossip? Oh yes, it’s good stuff.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the first chapter, From Sparks To Raging Fire.

KeepItShut copy

Karen begins the book by describing a time when she was in 8th grade where she used hurtful words about a friend and how it caused her to lose all of her friends. She realized from that incident that words are so important. She gives the following statistic that in the course of a year, women speak 7.3 million words and men speak 2.5 million words…that’s a lot of words flying around. A lot of those words are loving, caring and supportive but so many of them are not. What can we do this year to speak more of the loving ones? This passage she includes from James (3.9-12) was a really an A-Ha moment for me:

“James tells us that a spring cannot suddenly shoot out both sweet and bitter water. Neither can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine decide to grow a whole mess of figs and grapes. You can’t get fresh water from a salt water spring. Lesson? We should not have both righteous and evil words coming from our tongues.”

This first chapter encourages us to take stock in the words we use. To start the new year by thinking before you speak. Consider how many times in the bible speech words are mentioned such as speak, mouth, talk, silence…I’ll give you a hint, it’s a lot. There’s definitely a connection between the bible and how God wishes us to use our minds before our lips.

Join me back here over the next few weeks to delve further into Karen’s book, Keep It Shut. In the meantime, let’s take the challenge of thinking before we speak this week and see how our lives are transformed.

Click here for more information on how to order the book.

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