Taming the Tongue

July 27, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
James 3:1-10

Self-Discipline, now here is a topic that rates high on everyone’s list when in casual conversation over a magnificent dinner, Not! Yet, it is part of the fruit of the Spirit that all believers are to endeavor to produce so as to encourage others to seek and find Christ.

The Message translation of a portion of our scripture for today puts it pretty well when considering the self-discipline of our words: “It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony into chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—It’s never been done [apart from Christ Jesus]. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongue we bless God our Father; with the same tongue we curse the very men and women he made in his image…”

Here’s a thought, what if each of us took some time every morning to ask the Holy Spirit to sweeten our words for the day with the fruit of self-discipline? Do you suppose we might be less inclined to use words that we might regret later, and more inclined to use words that build up another person? My husband of 36 years has been known to say “Not everything that pops up in your head needs to pop out of your mouth”, good advice, thanks honey. I found some inspiration from a little poem written by Louisa May Alcott, it is titled My Kingdom: “A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well. I do not ask for any crown but that which all may win; Nor try to conquer any world except the one within.”

AMEN!