My Mouth....My greatest strength and my most powerful weapon. Yikes

Ok....so...the question is...what do you see as your biggest weakness and your biggest strength? Think about it a moment..............What are mine? Well, thanks for asking! = 0 )

The answer to both is my mouth. Yep. My mouth. My words have gotten me into so much trouble over the years. "Lipping off" as a child, being inappropriately sarcastic, talking too much in class, lying for no reason (even when the truth was just fine to tell....saying to myself afterwards, "why did I just do that!), telling secrets that I shouldn't have, oh boy...the list goes on and on. On the other hand, my words have given encouragement to people in need, greeted people warmly, conveyed a message in the perfect way, gotten me good grades in school, shoot, my words even got me the blue ribbon in a 5th grade poetry contest! (beat that!) In my life now, I get to express my deep love to my children OR I can harp on them like a lap dog barking at the door bell! My words can make my husband feel like a good man and a great dad OR my words can reduce him to a sad little boy. My words can get me lots of quick helpful advice when calling the cable company for the 15th time OR they can get me hung up on and my cable turned off. In my Christian walk, I remember very clearly when it came to my attention that God had lots to say about our tongues. Now wait...the God of the universe, the creator of all things has something to say about MY words, MY mouth? It was at this point that I took an honest look at what harm and what good I was capable of. Never before had I thought about the consequences of my words. Yes, I realized the consequence to ME but not to those all around me, in such a profound way. Let's take a look at a little bit of scripture that deals with what we say. You will be amazed if you are not familiar with these verses OR if you are familiar with them, I think it will be a nice refresher.

James 3:5-10 (Message Bible)
It only takes a spark, remember, to set off 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!

(Wow! When I first read those words of scripture, I could not believe it! Now, I was aware that I needed to be nice and all that. But the realization that God had something to say about it! He was clarifying the reality that my tongue, your tongue, people's tongues can do so much damage. They can be quite a blessing as well. To me this as just a call to watch what I say..always...and understand the power it/I have. Let's read some more.)

Proverbs 17:27

The one who knows much says little; an understanding person remains calm.

(Shoot, I thought it was important that I tell EVERYONE what I thought about whatever even if they don't ask! God is telling me that it is not just me that does this but lots of people. I want to be an understanding person...so....keep quiet. Don't talk so much. )

Proverbs 21:23
Watch your words and hold your tongue;
you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.

Proverbs10:19
The more talk, the less truth;the wise measure their words.

This might be my favorite.....

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

(Now, that just says it all!)

In just Proverbs alone, there are 105+ references to our mouths, words, tongues...and what harm they can do or what a blessing they can be. In my walk, when I learned this...it was such an eye opener to me. I needed to get outside myself. I needed our Lord to show me that it was not all about me. My actions had consequences. My words had power. It was up to me to decide if I was going to be powerful for good OR not so good. The choice was mine. So, in my life today, as a mom, wife, friend, etc...I need to remind myself of the power of EVERY word that comes out of my mouth. I need to give life with those words. I have asked for forgiveness for the words of death I have spoken over the years. AND...I have realized that I will always have words of death that are itching to come out. That does not go away. EVER. But, as a Christian, walking with God enables me to give those thoughts, feelings, words to Him. He then calmes me and HE takes my words of frustration, anger, fear and sadness. With His help I have not unleashed those unkind things on those that I love most or even those that I don't even know. I fail miserably at times but I can keep trying and I think I keep getting better. Praise God!! Can I get an Amen!! = 0 )

Oh yeah...one last thing....with the help of God, this verse doesn't seem as scary...

Matthew 12:36 tell us...

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

(I know, this verse hurts but the Truth hurts....I share all this in complete love.)