Random Bible Verse

In an effort to increase my writing and continue to keep this blog active, I am going to try something new.  I will be using the random bible verse page at DailyVerses.net to fuel future blog posts.  I will take the verse and reflect on it.  I will not select a new random verse if I do not like the first one provided each time.  Some of these posts may be more interesting than others, but so be it.  My comments may be a direct response to the verse, or it may be thoughts that the verse brings to my mind or stories it reminds me of.  I look at this as a writing exercise as much as it is a content driver.  I will be trying to do this a few times per week, if things go as planned.  And thus, here is the first one.

Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.
Proverbs 12:16

We live in a reactive world.  People allow themselves to be offended at every little thing somebody else says that doesn't match what they believe or how they live.  We often see people who believe differently than us as the enemy.  We insult other people with harsh words, and then throw fits when those same people insult us.  We don't take time to understand the viewpoints of other people, instead assuming the worst about them.  We assume that we are the only ones seeing things correctly, and that everybody else is foolish or stupid or selfish or evil.  We are so easily set off by the words of people we don't even know. 

It is inevitable that we will interact with people who disagree with us on many different issues.  What we cannot do, however, is simply throw insults at anybody who disagrees with us.  Such reactive emotions do nothing but raise tensions and sever relationships.  We must all learn how to have profitable discourse instead of simply yelling at each other.  When others do hurl insults at us, we must not return fire with our own harsh words.  We live in a diverse society with a free exchange of words and ideas, and that should be celebrated and not weaponized.  We should seek to understand one another and converse peacefully with those we disagree with.  In the end, none of us is perfect and none of us have a full understanding of how life works.  We need to see each other as real people of equal value instead of looking down on anybody who sees things differently.