Silly Talk 2 Timothy 2:23

"Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights." 2 Timothy 2:23 NLT

So this week I got engaged into a conversation that turned into a lot more than it should have. It involved “foolish and ignorant ^speculations” that I knew would “ ^produce ^quarrels.” This took place through the internet so it was a typed public conversation. It all began with a discussion about a video of a class of kindergarten kids singing a song that they were taught in school about how great our president is. The song they were singing was set to the tune of Jesus loves the little children but was replaced with the name of Barack Hussein Obama instead of Jesus. The original point of the post was that there are many people that are making our president out to be like God and how we disagreed with that idea. The point we were discussing was that God and God alone should be praised and it turned into a political debate about policies concerning the poor in which political parties were defended. I knew half way through the dialogue that I should just have dropped it because I knew it was going in the wrong direction and that there would be nothing positive that would come from it. . I thought it, my wife thought it and even told me, “just let it go it’s pointless and someone is just trying to get you frustrated” but I did not listen to myself or to her and I continued to have a dialogue that was pointless and indeed stupid. The problem was I felt personally attacked and when I do I always feel as if I need to defend myself. I was called an arrogant worm, hypocrite and a heathen and my salvation was questioned just because I did not agree with a political party policy. So instead of refusing to engage I defended my character. The question that I have thought about since this conversation is, does it really matter what people think about me? And another is, why do I always feel the need to defend myself? I have concluded to the first question. The answer is usually no and in this case it was a definite no. It shouldn’t have mattered one bit to me what this person thought of me or what he called me. I should have just left it alone at that point because I knew that there would be no benefit to the ongoing conversation except for Christianity to look foolish. The answer to the second question is simple but I think we struggle with it, God is our defender and we don’t always have to defend ourselves. The fact is all that matters is that God knows our hearts and it doesn’t matter what others might say or think. What a great reminder for me to, “refuse foolish and ignorant ^speculations, knowing that they ^produce ^quarrels.^” 2 Tim 2:23