Have you ever had a moment when words just came flying out of your mouth and you know as you are saying them that this is wrong? I have many times, unfortunately. For some reason, I seem to be “gifted” with a very biting and sarcastic tongue. This is not one of the traits that I am very proud of. It is also something that I know I must confront and bring under the sovereignty of Christ.

I am currently reading Proverbs–so you probably understand why I am feeling so convicted in the area of speech. Solomon has many verses in Proverbs related to what we say. Most of them talk directly that a wayward tongue leads to ruin.

Here is just a few of the ones that have really caught my attention the last couple weeks:

10:19-21 “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.”
11:12 “Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.”
12:14 “From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him.”
(For a more comprehensive list…see Proverbs!)

One of the things that really has me thinking is that there seems to be a direct line between my words and my heart. That tells me that I need to get serious about changing my heart first if I want to change what comes out of my mouth.

This week I have been very cautious about my words. Summer is a good time for me to begin to work on this because instead of talking with literally several hundred people a day during the school year (boy, do you see why this is so important for me to work on this??) I have limited interactions during the month of July.

I encourage you to really think about your words this week. Are you building up or tearing down with your words? As time permits, reflect back after you have conversations this week. Were your words an encouragement?

Let’s tackle this together so we can be the redeemers that Christ is calling us to be!

More to come…
Jeremy