Read
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.
Proverbs 29:11
Reflect
When I was a kid, we lived outside of Sarasota, Fla., on a nine-acre farm. I was not a natural-born farm hand — to say the very least — but today I have some pretty fond memories of that place. One of the best memories was our dog, Sammy.
Technically, she was named Samantha B. Dog, and to this day we have no idea what her mix was. The nearest we could figure was that she was part German Shepherd, part Black Lab — and part wolf.
Seriously.
When she ran, she didn’t run like a typical dog. She loped like a wolf. But the most amazing thing was that without any real training, she became probably the best cattle dog we had ever seen.
If you’ve never seen a cattle dog at work, you’ve really missed something. One little dog — at least little compared to a one-ton cow — can push a small herd of cattle in the right direction. It’s incredible when you think about it. These massive cows are so afraid of the nip and bark of the dogs that they will go wherever the dogs are driving them.
If the cows ever figured out that they were more powerful than the dogs, the jig would be up, and the dogs would be out of a job. But that almost never happens. The dogs use the cattle’s own herd instinct against them, and the herd almost always goes exactly where the dogs — with guidance from the cowboys — push them.
That’s pretty much the way our emotions sometimes drive us.
Sometimes you might hear someone say, “I have to be true to my emotions,” but that can become the equivalent of letting the cattle dog drive the herd. Emotions are real, and they matter, but they are not always reliable leaders. When we let them take over, they can push us in directions we never would have chosen with a clear mind.
The Bible equates that kind of behavior with foolishness when it says, “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” In modern terms, you might hear this called “emotional intelligence.” The Bible just calls it wisdom.
Don’t get me wrong — emotions are absolutely supposed to inform us. And emotions can be very genuine. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. Joy. Surprise. Disgust. These and more are an important part of our lives, but they need to be governed so they don’t start making our decisions for us.
Today, pray for the wisdom to manage your emotions whenever they feel like they want to run out of control.
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Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
