James 3:7-12
People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
A friend of mine once shared a story about ironing her clothes one afternoon while she watched Oprah on TV. As she ironed the clothes, she sprayed them with lemon-scented “starch” to give the fabrics body, a crisp appearance, and longer-lasting wear. But she was also totally engrossed in the television show, so she wasn’t watching her work as closely as she should have been. When she was finished and the show was over, she looked at the items on her ironing board and discovered she had “starched” all of her clean laundry with Pledge® Lemon Clean furniture spray! She laughed about it and said “At least the clothes smelled good!”
Hopefully, the laundry was not ruined… but everything surely had to be washed and ironed again. All of my friend’s efforts were wasted because she was not paying close enough attention. And that’s how we are so much of the time with what we say and do. We get sidetracked and distracted… or we simply are not careful… and we make a mess of things. At the very least, what we have said or done has to be repeated and/or corrected. And too often, the damage is irreparable.
There is no way we will ever be able to control our words – and many of our actions – under our own power. If we have any hope of controlling our tongue, we must stay in constant communication with God. Our effectiveness as a Christian disciple will correlate directly to how well we interconnect with our Heavenly Father – and our daily exchanges with the Holy Spirit.
How are you doing these days? Are you “ironing with Pledge®” instead of spray starch? Are you making messes with your talk and action where you should be sharing the message of Jesus Christ? Are you distracted and sidetracked by the things of this world… the “busyness” of each and every day? Do you allow your mouth to engage before your brain has time to kick into gear? Isn’t it time to take a step back and regain your focus? Wouldn’t you rather say and do the right thing the first time and not have to worry about repairing the damage later?
Ask God to help you guard your heart – and your tongue. Call on the Holy Spirit to guide you each and every minute of the day. We can’t tame our tongue on our own… but God can give us a spirit of self-control. Have you asked Him to do this in your life? Isn’t it time you did?
©2012 Debbie Robus
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