Just Drop It

Today as I continue to share some things that are jumping out to me as I read through Proverbs, I want to jump back to Proverbs 17 & talk about something I read this week that has continued to stick with me. In Proverbs 17:14, we find this nugget of wisdom,

"Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out."

If you're like me, you love to be right. I mean you LOVE it. There's nothing like making that decisive point that makes the other party realize how misguided or misinformed they were is there? However, if you're like me you may have also learned that being right can come at a cost. When you or I are driven by being right, we put a relationship in jeopardy. Solomon & the others who contributed to the Proverbs understood this. That's why this verse is there.

An argument can be a devastating thing, so we need to carefully weigh the cost of starting one. We've all gotten into disputes & arguments where somewhere along the way we thought, "Why are we even arguing about this?" or even worse we think, "What were we arguing about again?" It's amazing how are need to be right can drive us into a heated dispute but along the way that issue that we thought was so important somehow gets forgotten in the middle of the argument!

What if we started to drop it? What if we started to drop the little things that don't really matter & aren't worth the time, energy, & damage that will result from the battle? I know, some of you think that being right is the most important thing in the world, but if you can't correct someone lovingly then you're totally missing the whole "love your neighbor" part of following Jesus. Truth is vitally important but so are people & so are our relationships. I love what Jon Acuff said yesterday, "It's impossible for me to love my neighbor when my need to be right, overwhelms my desire to be righteous."

Next time you're tempted to dive in head first into an argument, remember what you might be unleashing, consider how you might be seeking RIGHTNESS over RIGHTEOUSNESS, & whether or not you could just drop it.

How have you seen arguments & disputes in your own life damage relationships? Was someone's desire to be right at the core of it?