Cut My Tongue Out, Please!

Ever make a statement and then just as soon as you said it, wish you could "drag it back in your mouth?" James makes a very profound comment about this in his book and the passage is in James 3:7 and says, "...no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison." OUCH! A pretty brazen statement. But it is true.

We walk around this earth all the time, flapping our tongues and most of the time, never giving any regard to what or to whom we are "flapping"! I've said things a thousand times that I wish I could drag back into my mouth. Even in the state of "spiritual" sincerity we find ourselves in, our tongues always find a way to get us into trouble.

And now, not only our tongues, but we have the Internet and emails and texts and cell phones that only ADD to our ability to have a "slip of the tongue."

I remember when I first received Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I was working at Kaiser Steel in Fontana, California as an overhead crane operator. I hung with a pretty "messy" crowd and most of them could cuss the wallpaper off the wall, on cue.

When I returned to work after my salvation experience, I knew that it would be difficult so I convinced myself to turn my speech down, like an old record player. I slowed down my speech from 45 rpms to 33 1/3 rpms so I could actually think about what I was going to say before I said it. Can you believe that that method works? I wish I could think up something like that to help smokers to stop smoking. I'd be rich!

Anyway, since it is not beneficial for you to "cut out" your tongue, if you are having a problem (even if it does not concern foul language) try to slow down your speaking just a little bit, remember that Jesus Christ is with you everywhere, and then perhaps you can have a little better control.

The Bible declares it, so it's a fact. "No one can tame the tongue..." but you can slow it down just a little and teach it a few new tricks. What an applicable passage for us today. Something as little as our speech to one another needs to be filtered through Jesus Christ. That must mean we need Him in every aspect of our lives.

Happy "flapping"!

Dave