One of the cutest things to watch is a little kid trying to wink just one eye. For whatever reason, children can’t typically do that until they are 6 or 8 years old. Younger than that, try as they might to wink with just one eye, they can’t close just one. They blink with both eyes.

But once we learn to wink, a wink is not just a wink. It’s saying something. It’s a form of nonverbal communication, and in our culture, it can mean a lot of things depending on the context and how it is received. It can be flirty, affirming, or charming.

But in Proverbs 10:10, it says, “Whoever winks the eye causes trouble.” One of the ways people use a wink is to communicate, “You can trust me.” It can be a way to deceive a person and to disarm them, to get them to let their guard down. Proverbs 6:12–14, “A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord.”

The Bible is saying that winking can be a form of deception. Therefore, we must learn to read those nonverbal cues so that we can safeguard ourselves in a situation and not be drawn into something deceptive and dangerous.

A wink is not just a wink.

Change begins in you!