Filter

Do you ever get annoyed with yourself for saying something stupid? I’ll give you a second to make sure you give an honest answer… Seriously, though, what is it about human nature that our minds tells us, “don’t do it, don’t do it”, but then we click the send button or the share button or those words slip out. In fact, there’s a Tiktok trend that repeats the words ‘Don’t say it’ over and over again…before she inevitably says it.
And that’s just the way we are. In fact, that might be one of the main reasons we have to apologize later. But, we also probably excuse that behavior more often than we should. And, I’m tired of that.
And so, I wonder, is there a way that we can stop ourselves from saying that stupid thing or replying with that snarky comment and do things better?
I heard a sermon a while ago from a powerful preacher named Erwin McManus. From my memory of that message, I remember him explaining how each of us has a filter where we take the information we have in our head and we process it in such a way that allows our words and language to come out in a particular way. What I took from that message was that our context (who our audience is) as well as our situation (where we’re at) will dictate how we use this filter.
And so, before we speak, usually, we take the information that our brain produces and it travels through a filtration system before it comes out of our mouth. So that, if we’re talking to the pastor, we might adjust some of those thoughts to sound more ‘appropriate’ while if we’re with our spouse we might allow those words to come out a little less filtered.
But what McManus said about the way to move forward best in these situations isn’t to have a better filter but to have a better thought process. If we continually stick our foot in our mouth or say things we don’t mean, it might be because we have a negative or poor thought process rather than a poor filter.
Paul writes to us in Philippians 4.8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
For me, I’m not there. I don’t always think of excellent or admirable or right things. And so, I trust my filter to not get me into trouble. Unfortunately, my filter doesn’t work perfectly.
And so, my prayer for you and for me, is that we learn more and more to not trust that faulty filter and to lean more into God’s wisdom on thinking about pure, honorable and admirable things. God bless.