Guard Your Mouth!
by Timothy Adrian Santos
'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!'
One of the biggest lies to be said.
Words, when we're not cautious, cut deep.
The Bible dubs the tongue as one of the deadliest parts in our body. No, it can't cut through metal nor can it punch someone in the face physically.
What we say to other people can affect them emotionally and spiritually.
Tell people a lot of good things, you can easily make their days.
But tell them hurtful words-
You cut deeper than a sword.
The TONGUE is powerful.
3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth.4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.
James 3:3-5
Small but terrible: that's how we can describe the tongue. Just like the rudder, small as it may be, the tongue controls our speech.
What we say may appear harmless at first. It's just one word, right? But once we throw it at others, we can't take them back. You tell your classmate she's ugly, she may not show it but she's got a sear in her heart for sure. You throw a bad word at your enemy and before you know it, you're sporting a black eye.
A tiny spark can set a forest fire. One word can create a huge mess!
That's how powerful the tongue is.
Gossiping about other people is a spark. You talk to others about other people's problems, add in some comments and share it to other friends. Days pass, it seems as if most people already know about the issue.
Spark = fire.
6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.
James 3:6
Words have the power like fire! No, they don't set things to flames but as described above, the effect is pretty much the same.
The infamous Adolf Hitler grew up in an anti-Jew environment, where all the talks about the Jews were degrading. Look where that got him.
There's one thing we can get from these:
Be very careful with your words.
We have to be mindful with what we say. We have to tame our tongues.
Can we do that easily?
The answer:
We don't have the ability to tame our tongues.
You say: WHAAT?
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:7-8
No human being can tame the tongue. It appears easy at first; you think it's just being cautious all the time. But ask yourself: can you be cautious every time? Can you watch your words every minute?
Being the human that we are, it's not possible-
Without God.
We need God's help in training our tongue to be tamed.
The first thing to know about having a holy tongue is it comes from a holy heart.
Holy means set apart. Imagine yourself holding an ice cream; a vanilla ice cream. It's all white and creamy. It's purely set apart. But once you drop that on the ground, it's not clean anymore :( In fact, it's all dirty and...inedible.
That's being unholy. :(
So, how does one have a holy tongue?
11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring
James 3:11-12
A spring has fresh water flowing from it, fresh and sweet water. The water is in that state due to its clear source. Should the water in the spring be polluted, we would know that there's something wrong with the water source.
45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
Luke 6:45
Your heart reflects your words. Fill your heart with good things. Let love abound! Your words will show the contents of that beating organ of yours. We should imitate Christ as mentioned in Ephesians 4:29.
Keep in mind to only say what is helpful to others. Even if tempers are running high and the situation is getting nastier by the second, we have to keep calm and be careful with what we say. Ask yourself: Is what I'm going to say going to be helpful or hurtful?
Is this story of my friend worth sharing to others?
Should I lie?
Must I bully this kid?
Is this green joke worth it?
Always stop before you say anything you might regret. A real follower of Christ would imitate Christ, even in his words.
Our tongue can be the most painful weapon used against other people but we can tame it, not on our own, but with the help of God. We should re-evaluate ourselves, give a heart check and make sure that we fill ourselves with good so that the words we give to others are also good.
Guard your mouth! :)
Written by Ashkey Petallano (c) 2013
Is this story of my friend worth sharing to others?
Should I lie?
Must I bully this kid?
Is this green joke worth it?
Always stop before you say anything you might regret. A real follower of Christ would imitate Christ, even in his words.
Our tongue can be the most painful weapon used against other people but we can tame it, not on our own, but with the help of God. We should re-evaluate ourselves, give a heart check and make sure that we fill ourselves with good so that the words we give to others are also good.
Guard your mouth! :)
Written by Ashkey Petallano (c) 2013
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