Taming the Tongue

It's amazing how one seemingly insignificant, overlooked, and under valued muscle can be so powerful! With our tongue we can taste buttery popcorn, salty nuts, savory dishes, scrumptious sweets, and sour fruit, but taste is not the only thing a tongue has the power to do. The tongue gives you the ability to speak, and boy is that dangerous! Words are innumerable. They can heal or hurt, they can sooth or sting, they can encourage or they can belittle, they can shift blame or accept wrong, they can edify or tear down. Words are POWERFUL. 

I don't know about you, but I know I don't give as much thoughts to the words that roll off my tongue as I should. Sometimes I wonder that I still have friends and family who love me, considering some of the things I've said. Being one who likes to talk a lot, this verse from Proverbs has made me stop and think if the words that I was about to say are wise. 

• "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom." Prov 10:19-21

The Bible talks a lot about the tongue and the difference between the words of the righteous and the foolish. Here are some of my favorites. 

• "The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." Prov 10:11

• "He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction." Prov 13:3

• "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness." Prov 15:1-2

• "He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him." Prov 18:13

• "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." Prov 25:11

• "Let another man praise you and not your own mouth; a stranger and not your own lips." Prov 27:2

• "If anyone among you things he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless."James 1:26

• "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!" James 3:5
• "But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not be so." James 3:8-10

We are what we say "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouths speak" (Matt 12:34). What do your words say about you?