Shut Your Mouth!

A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. – Proverbs 18:6

Let’s be real, OK? Sometimes people get into trouble because they can’t shut their mouths.

Years ago, while driving a school bus in Kentucky, I had to stop and have the police come on board to search for drugs. As we had been going down the road there were some kids in the back who had lit up a marijuana joint and the smell was obvious.

However, when the police came onto the bus and began to search the bags of the suspected teens, a young girl who was sitting nowhere near the smokers started cursing at the police. Her complaint was that the suspected teens were black, that they were just being profiled, and that she wasn’t going to stand for it.

Needless to say, before long the one who ended up getting taken off the bus in handcuffs was the loud-mouthed, belligerent, unruly white girl. The other kids – the ones who said “Yes, sir,” and “No, sir” – just got a warning… no drugs were found.

What happened on that bus that day is nothing unusual; it happens all the time. Foolish people can’t help but run their mouths whenever they feel wronged or disrespected. Then, when strokes come, they act surprised.