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When I was a kid, if I said something inappropriate in front of my parents my dad would fire off a stern look and say “watch your mouth mister”. The implication was that I had the ability to control what came out of my mouth. As I’ve gotten older I have realized how important it is to watch what comes out of my mouth. As someone who makes a living speaking in front of people, I’ve embarrassed myself a few times with the things that come out of my mouth. Here’s an example. A few years ago I was giving a message talking about how kids oftentimes have dreams about what they want to be when they grow up. As a “for instance”, I said that one of my daughters wanted to be a Cheetah girl. It made complete sense to me because she watched the Disney channel every day. The Cheetah girls were an American girl band made popular in a Disney channel series. Unfortunately the Cheetah is also, according to its website, “the Southeast’s most renowned gentleman’s club and home of the legendary Cheetah girls.” As I was speaking I noticed a reaction I wasn’t expecting. At that moment it dawned on me that everybody thought I was saying my daughter wanted to be an exotic dancer. Fortunately I was able to clarify what I meant but the embarrassment lingered for a few weeks.
Moments like that make me realize the truth of what the book of James means when it says “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.” The things that come out of our mouths can almost literally set a fire in our lives. But our tongues can also do such great good. As James also states “With it (the tongue) we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.” The point is, with one of the smallest parts of our bodies we can do such good and yet we can also cause great embarrassment and pain.
What can we do about this? Perhaps we can seek to speak more wisely, with greater discernment and care. Realizing that our tongues can both bless and curse, bring healing and harm, we should be careful to guard that which comes out of our mouths. We all know about the 24 hour rule that advises us to give ourselves 24 hours before we say something or send an email out of anger. And yet, sometimes even 24 hours isn’t enough time to help us reign in our tongues. What if we were to fire off a quick prayer before speaking. I can’t think of a better way to reign in the tongue than to utter a prayer with it first. It’s hard to speak ill of someone when we’ve just prayed for the ability not to. It’s hard to curse someone when we’ve just blessed them. It’s hard to demean or devalue someone when we’ve just prayed for the courage and strength to love them or lift them up.
This week, may God help us to guard our tongues so that the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts will be pleasing in his sight. (Psalm 19:14)
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