Taming The Tongue

Recently,

many people , sermons, mentors, pastors have been speaking to me and the recurrent message is always about using and choosing words carefully.

today's devotion also talks about it and i like how Eugene Peterson puts it..

James 3
A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or
destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fi re. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to 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. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless
God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on.
[THE MESSAGE]

Even in my reflection paper in school, I had to reflect about this verse in Ps 141 that talks about our words......

"I need to work on my speech and the choice of words I use when speaking to people. I used to have this problem all the time because I would add in a swear word to my every sentence. Now, although most of the time those words are non-existent in my vocabulary, I still tend to hurt others with my words. This happens whenever I get too excited and carried away in my ecstasy because then I do not guard my mouth and process my thoughts before it comes out. It naturally comes out blatantly. I struggle very much in this area especially because the higher you go in leadership, you need to be more people-oriented and you need to meet more people hence you’ll probably have to talk very often and if my words are not full of grace and seasoned with salt then I don’t think I’ll get very far with my relationship with people. I think people will be turned off rather than attracted."

Surely... God is speaking..

But it's time to listen and respond...

I pray that I will be more careful with my words, choosing to say only what is necessary and thinking through what I say both in private and public, remembering what I say so that I will be able to give an account of it when I am being questioned.

I apologize sincerely if I have hurt anyone with my folly and foolishness. I need to make right not only here but personally too. I ask for your forgiveness.

It's time to battle.