“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.

Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” Proverbs 26:4-5 (NIV)

In my profession, I must send emails daily. Many, many emails. From behind a computer screen, I interact with many different people, from all walks of life, with all different personalities, biases, and beliefs. So of course that means I sometimes interact with fools.

Sometimes, I get an email with some foolishness and I immediately want to respond. I furiously type up my snarkiest response and want to hit send.

But Wisdom stops me. Most of the time, anyway.

Before hitting the send button, I pause and read back over what I wrote. Then I cringe. I’ve descended into Foolville. So, I delete the whole thing and go work on something else. The email needs a response. But it can wait. When I come back to it, I make sure it gets the appropriate answer.

Or maybe I determine the email actually doesn’t need a response and just move it to the appropriate folder.

Sometimes, Folly calls my work phone and I have to determine in just a few seconds how to respond appropriately. Do I respond in kind (e.g. attitudinal and rude, then abruptly hang-up)? Or do I gently and professionally provide correction (e.g. “I’m sorry you were misinformed it was X, but it’s really Y per policy”)?

Solomon expressed in today’s Proverb we need to know the difference between when to answer a fool and when not to. Everything doesn’t require a response, but sometimes we do need to respond and correct so confusion doesn’t creep in.

The longer we navigate our lives, the more wisdom we accrue to apply in every circumstance.

What’s a foolish situation or person you have encountered where you had to determine if a response was required or not? Did you respond appropriately?

EKG