Have you ever picked up the phone when it rings and there is no one there but you can clearly hear talking? Ah, the dreaded “pocket dial.” We pick up the phone and say, “hello, hello” only to be met by a faint conversation in the background. What is the etiquette on that? Do you simply hang up? Do you scream, “HELLO,” hopeful they will hear you? Do you call to inform them they just pocket dialed?
Chances are, at some point, you’ve done it too. You may not even know you did it. Who knows how long someone was listening to your conversation? What if they overheard you saying something bad? Well that is exactly what happened to sisters, Ashlie Alewine and Nakilya Wright. You see, they had just robbed The InnPlace Hotel in Naples, FL, when…you guessed it…pocket dial. As it turns out, Ashlie was a former hotel employee who had been fired recently! So who did she pocket dial? You guessed it…the hotel, which happened to be on the phone with 911. To make matters worse, it wasn’t just the “usual,” chit-chat. Rather, 911 was able to hear and record a detailed discussion about how they planned and executed the robbery!
We should all choose our words carefully. Whether we realize it or not, the Lord knows every word we have ever spoken. I suppose one might say that we have a constant pocket dial in this life. In Matthew 12:36-37, Jesus says that we will be called to account for every word we have spoken, and that by our own words we will be acquitted or condemned.
Does knowing that someone is listening change what you might say? James suggests that it should. In James 3:2, he says, that the perfect man will never be at fault in what he says, able to keep his tongue in check, and thereby control the whole body.
Want a great New Year’s resolution? Watch your words! That’s a resolution that just may just keep you out of trouble, and can definitely keep you out of condemnation.
