None of us are perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech is perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
A bit in the mouth of horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skillful captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. 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 a forest fire. 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! (James 3.The Message)
“The voice of a fool comes through many words.” (Ecclesiastes 5.3)
“Let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no; and anything beyond that is from the evil one.” (Matthew 5.37)
“Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.” (Ephesians 5.4)
“Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” (Ephesians 4.29)
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” (Proverbs 25.11)
“Let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5.2)
Wordy Talk
“In all things be “quick to listen and slow to speak.” (James 1.19)
Otherwise you will become like “a man too ready to speak.” Know that a fool has more hope than he. And never dare to teach someone what you have not practiced yourself.” (John Cassian, 360-435, French monk.)
God help me; I’m still practicing; and since I’m in the word business, my prayer:
“Post a guard at my mouth, God, set a watch at the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141.3)
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