Daily In The Word – Feb. 13 – Your Tongue of Fire
Here are my thoughts from today’s reading, this one is about how we use our mouth. I think that this is so telling because just this morning, I had some tough issues controlling my temper because of the behaviors of some of my children. It’s very easy for us to see a situation, be it with children or otherwise, where we want to shout and scream about something. I am a recovering screamer, I want to be fully transparent about that. The less sleep I have and the more challenges that compound on me, the more likely I am to yell or say something I regret. There is no more humbling thing in the world than to hear your children say something with a curse word, only to realize that they heard you say that exact phrase yesterday. It’s great that they are copying their parents, but horrible that they are copying the worst part of what we have to say. This is only fitting when the Scripture discusses this in Proverbs: “Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.” (Proverbs 13:3, NLT). It is so very true how we can open our mouths and instantly cause more pain or trouble than we ever intended. I used to joke that I once heard an ancient Chinese proverb that says: “Closed mouth, gathers no foot.” and although I’m not sure if such a real proverb exists, this scripture seems to be as close to it as we can get. Guard your tongue friends, for much good and bad can come from it.