[Darris McNeely] Have you ever wanted to return fire with fire? By that I mean, someone insults you, someone offends you, someone writes you a fiery email or a text that's emotional, that upsets you, that attacks you in some way, and you just wanna fire back a memo to them. You wanna retort and give it back to them. "Oh, yeah? Well, let me tell you this. You think this, let me tell you what you need to understand." And we wanna return fire with fire because we feel offended, we feel wronged, and perhaps nobody's there to reach out for us and help us. It happens a lot. It happens all the time, and especially in our highly communicated world where we all have email and text messaging where we can, in a sense, send something and we don't have to see the immediate consequences of it. We can just kind of walk away. The temptation is all too great to do that. We've all done that, haven't we? But it doesn't always create peace. It doesn't solve the conflict.

There's a proverb that we should remember the next time you wanna return fire for fire. Proverbs 15:1, let me read it to you. "A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger." A soft answer turns away wrath. Better to return a soft answer. Always answer. Always respond to those barbs, those jabs that come from people, and those bouts of anger that may come our way at times. Give a response. Don't just slink away. Don't walk away, but pause, sleep on it. Think about it. Pray about it. Ask God to help you to give the right answer.

And perhaps just in time, through your maturity, through your experience, and through God's Spirit working with you, you will see the wisdom of what it says here to give a soft answer. That soft answer doesn't mean that you don't put facts out there, you don't show where a person may be wrong, and you show what is right, and you defend, protect your position if you are right and feel so, but you do it with a soft answer, with words such as, "I understand. Can we talk? Can we discuss this? I appreciate your writing." All different kinds of phrases and words should be there rather than fire with fire.

It'll go a long way toward avoiding what it says in the latter part of this verse returning harsh words that just stir up anger. When anger's stirred up, it's hard to get it tamped back down. And so, resist that urge to fight fire with fire. Remember, a soft answer can turn away wrath and solve conflict.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.