The Sound of Silence

Right now I'm sitting in my living room by myself.  The television is turned on to a  DVR'd show on the Disney Channel.  My family is notorious for turning the TV on and then leaving, with the remote control on the other side of the room.  I hardly ever turn the TV on when I am at home by myself.  I'm usually reading or working on grading or notes, and I find it distracting.  I used to be one of those people who needed noise in the background all the time.  Now, it's just aggravating.

I think we need silence.  It's not something we are comfortable with.  When faced with silence, we usually want to say something... anything... whether it is of any substance or not.  Two of the devotions I read tonight dealt with keeping our silence, citing verses from Proverbs and the chapter from James that is so hard to swallow, dealing with controlling our tongue.  This hit me especially close to home, as this morning I did nothing to keep my tongue in control.  Wallace was up at 7 on a day off, the phone rang at 730, and from there my huffs and puffs led to a full blown argument.  I dwelt in my anger and frustration pretty much all day, pouting and not speaking... not the kind of silence we are supposed to keep =)

I have good intentions of keeping silent.  I catch myself as I mouth off and think, "You probably shouldn't have said that."  But I rarely heed my own warnings.  I quarrel and gripe so much sometimes that I'm like that endless background noise, aggravating and just distracting, but noone really pays much attention.  This makes me feel unappreciated, which I feed off of, and before I know it, I'm in trouble again. 

I don't think I'm the only person who deals with this... so if you are in the same boat, I want to encourage you to practice silence.  Silence in the car... silence without earphones in, silence without the TV on.  Just sit, and absorb.  When someone says something and you don't really know an answer, be silent and think rather than just spouting off.  And especially in your anger, bite your tongue.  I think we'd all agree that the best words are the ones that are well thought out, and those that really mean something.  Silence is golden...