Daily Devotionals

Devotional: November 18th

“Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

One important element of practical wisdom is tactfulness. The Christian should learn how to be tactful. This means that he should develop a delicate sensitivity as to what to do or say so as to avoid offense and cement good relations. The tactful person puts himself in the other fellow’s shoes and asks himself, “How would I like to have that said or done to me?” He seeks to be diplomatic, considerate, gracious and discerning.

Unfortunately the Christian faith has had its share of tactless adherents. One classic example was a Christian barber in a small midwestern town. When a luckless customer entered the shop one day and asked for a shave, the barber seated him, tied the usual white cloth around his neck and tilted back the chair. On the ceiling the customer saw the words “Where will you spend eternity?” The barber lathered his face liberally; then as he began to sharpen the razor on the strop, he began his evangelistic witness with the question, “Are you prepared to meet God?” The customer bolted out of the chair—towel, lather and all—and hasn’t been heard from since.

Then there was the zealous student who went out one night to do some personal evangelism. Walking down a dark street, he saw a young lady walking ahead of him in the shadows. As he tried to catch up with her she began to run. Anxious, he ran after her. When she doubled her pace, he did the same. Finally she ran up onto the porch of a house in near shock and started fumbling in her handbag for her keys. As he ran up onto the porch, she was too paralyzed with fear to scream. Then smilingly he handed her a tract and left, happy to have reached another sinner with the Gospel.

Great tact is needed in visiting the sick. It doesn’t help to say, “You really do look sick” or “I knew a person with the same trouble—and he died.” Who needs that kind of comfort?

And we should be tactful when we visit the bereaved. We shouldn’t be like the Texan who said to the widow of a slain politician, “And just to think that it had to happen in Texas!”

God bless those choice saints who always seem to know how to speak the gracious, appropriate word. And God teach the rest of us how to be tactful diplomats instead of tactless bumblers.

Copyright Statement