Do you ever say things you don’t want to say? I do it too often. I feel the flow of my flesh roll off my tongue and splat onto…honestly, usually my husband’s face.
Some times I watch the words rolling toward someone and want to scoop them up and throw them into the ocean. Some times, I don’t even realize the mess they’ve made until I see them splattered and oozing off a hurt face.
And yet, the most embarrassing to admit, are ones that I shoot at someone, darts hitting straight to the chest as I walk away without regard—the ones I’ll never know how deep the scars run.
My daughter has good days and bad days at school. She just started preschool this year. I ask her every day at pick-up how her day was. Wouldn’t you have it that the days, in her eyes, that are bad are the ones where a classmate hasn’t done something but rather said something to her that was anything less than loving.
It’s those darts, my dear, that hurt the worst—no matter what age you are.
Many many years ago a friend of mine commented on how another person seemed to always be restraining herself from what she really wanted to say. My friend was bothered by this condition—that someone may not be saying how they really felt which I could understand. But as I got to know the other person, I came to learn that she was restraining herself. She felt a conviction to bridle her tongue and tame her tongue to be slow to speak. What disciple! Do you know how difficult that is? I’ve tried it and it is much harder than it seems. But, that’s what Christ’s calls us to do! He doesn’t call us to speak our mind or argue our point. He calls us to bridle our tongue, be slow to speak, be slow to anger—to have control over our actions! I believe as the church in America we have lost such sight of this. We are missing the mark. Majorly.
So, what does the Word of God have to say about this little muscle in between our teeth? What action does Christ call us to?
Psalm 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
James 3:8-10
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James 1:19-20
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
James 1:26