Proverbs 26:8 · World English Bible
Proverbs 26:8 Meaning As One Who Binds a Stone
As one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.
What does Proverbs 26:8 mean?
Honor given to what is small in the mind only arms what would harm it. To praise the ego's cleverness is to fasten a weapon and then wonder at the wound, for whatever the mind exalts it also lets loose upon itself.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
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The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
Honor given to what is small in the mind only arms what would harm it. To praise the ego's cleverness is to fasten a weapon and then wonder at the wound, for whatever the mind exalts it also lets loose upon itself. The stone that should be released is instead held close and called precious.
The correction is to stop dignifying the very thoughts that attack. A mind that honors its own fear has bound a stone where it will surely strike, and no skill in aiming makes that safe. What frees it is to let the weapon fall, to withhold from separation the respect it feeds on, so nothing remains fixed in the hand to be flung.
Sling: the mind's readiness to strike, the readiness that turns whatever it holds dear into a weapon against itself Stone: the harmful thought the mind grips and honors instead of letting fall away
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Live Proverbs 26:8 today
- Find the grudge you have been quietly polishing today, the one with the perfect summary attached. Stop retelling it to yourself for one day and see what is left of it.
- When a conversation hands you the chance to use something you know about a person, let it go by. Having the stone does not mean it has to be thrown.
- Under pressure you will have a line ready that would end the argument and the goodwill at once. Put it down. Winning that way costs more than losing would have.
What have I been treating as valuable that is only a weapon I am still holding?
The same truth in other traditions
Dhammapada
Let a person overcome anger by non-anger, and evil by good. What is held onto in order to be thrown has already done its work inside.
Tao Te Ching 31
Weapons are instruments of sorrow, never of pride. The one who takes delight in them has already been harmed by them.
Stoicism · Seneca
Anger punishes the one who carries it more than the one it is aimed at. It stays in your hand long after the occasion has gone.
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