“No one will ever complain if you stop your sermon five minutes early,” my wife used to tell me. I was at a meeting of pastors recently where a series of people were each given two minutes to talk. Each successive pastor took longer and longer and longer. I slowly placed my hand over my wrist so that I could look at my watch.

It seems that as some of us get older we get more and more talkative, filling the room with our scattered wisdom. At least I do. My son told me that as a teenager my worst punishment for him was to bore him with lectures. Blah blah blah.

“Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3). I will stop there. No one will ever complain.