"Sticks and stones"

 "Sticks and stones"

Growing up in our day, there was always the kid that just wouldn’t keep his mouth shut with the “name calling” thing. A popular comeback we often used would be, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

Only a partial truth could this be. While paying no attention to the bantering of a foolish-behaving child, those spoken words which can be heard in any available ear, have the potential to leave their mark.

This truth parallels with the instruction we find in God’s Word pertaining to the words of our mouths. We need to make them good. We need to check them by His written Word to see if they should be uttered.

In the Book of James, the tongue is referred to as a little member, a fire, a boaster of great things, a world of iniquity, a defiler of the whole body, a fire starter for the course of nature, an unruly evil that is filled with deadly poison. Ouch! What a most concerning organ we have within our mouths!

James reveals all these ills to us in the hope that we will indeed set out to bridle those tongues and not be offensive with our words.

There is much admonishing in the Word of God for speaking rightly. Being slow to speak and quick to hear. Speaking as the Oracles of God. Seasoning our words with salt and His grace. Even the old Proverb that says “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

How hard it can be not to sin with the words of our mouths. Yet, He has given us His Spirit to make us overcomers even in the area of our speech. His Word tells us that every idle word shall have to be accounted for one day.

It’s so easy to be slack in this area of our Christian life. We’re often poked and prodded in such a fashion that we find ourselves as Paul the Apostle, “doing that we would not.” Or, rather speaking that we should not.

How about it? He’s given us the tools to work on this. Will we make a difference in this world and live as overcomers? Will our conversation be any different from a non-Christian neighbor? It should be.

As the Psalmist David once said, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.”

Have a blessed week as we use our words to bless,

Julie

Scripture References:

James chapter 3

Proverbs 18:21 Psalms 141:3&4

Matthew 12:36&37 “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment.

For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

I Peter 4:11 “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which

God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.