Speaking without thinking...

There seems to be an idea these days that trying to chew the words you speak isn't your true thoughts or powerful enough to get a message across. Dusty idea this time is the idea to listen and think about whats said, then respond. Use to be years ago, people could have a conversation off the clock. No time limit. Had time to hear and understand what was said, and had time to see it from another point of view. Especially if they didn't agree with it. Instant opinions weren't mandatory. Going with the crowd wasn't the thing to do no matter how many made up the crowd.

Most people don't learn anything by listening to themselves talk. Chewing your words and presenting them in a way to make them easier to be accepted by others is a very dusty idea.

James 1:20 says that every man should be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. I don't take those for idle words. It shows a patience factor to be able to listen and then actually think about the response.

I don't consider this slow to speak trait as unintelligent or uneducated. I consider it to be quite the opposite.

You never have a chance to pray about a situation, or check with the guide for this world and life, the Bible, if you got too anxious about replying. Almost universally when I stop to think about a statement or question posed to me people take it negatively if I don't respond right away. Typically speedy response is reguarded as the real answer whether good or bad response. A slow thoughtout answer is looked at as a lie whether its the answer expected or not.

Somehow we've gotten into this habit of trying to read between the lines, trying to figure out what someone really means, etc.

I would really love to see people get back to posing a statement or question and allowing the responder to think for a moment and then listen to the response and actually just accept what the answer is without trying to figure out what they "really" mean.