Some events require preparation. I would not want to teach a class or present a speech without preparing. Neither would I want to go unprepared to a business session, a board meeting, or a person-to-person confrontation.

To one degree or another, all the above events require more than having written or mental notes. They demand a certain state of heart and mind.

How do I make that kind of preparation?

Know God. Consult His Word. Pray. Yield to Him. Live for Him.

That’s some of what I get from this:

“The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:1).

That would also stand me in very good stead for those unanticipated, unplanned events for which I cannot prepare specifically.

breach — an opening, a tear, or a rupture; A gap or rift, especially in or as if in a solid structure such as a dike or fortification.

A dam or dike that has been breached . . . . Well, that’s a bad deal. It allows water to go where it isn’t wanted.

When the levees in New Orleans were breached during and after Hurricane Katrina, people died and lots of property was damaged.

But what about this kind of breach?

“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4).

A breach in my spirit would let in lots of evil — very, very bad.

When I allow perversity on my tongue, I am breaching my own spirit!

May God give me victory over any evil speech.