Watch your tongue!

I loved this picture because sometimes, after I leave a conversation, I think to myself, "Did I say that? That came out of my mouth?... now I need to ask for forgiveness!" If I walked around with a blanket over my head, some of the trouble would be taken care of for me, I couldn't see who I offended, and she couldn't see me- problem solved! Not so, right? Too often, I leave many conversations regretting my speech. I walk away only to wish I could take back my words and repair the damage I caused an unknowing victim by my lack of self- control. Our tongues are vicious things, are they not?

Then again, King Solomon advised this about the tongue, "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." A word, wisely spoken is a good thing! They are like perfume or like a soothing balm. A kindhearted and considerate woman can calm a storm, can she not?

In the book, Beautiful Girlhood, the author says this, "And such words (kind words) are not hard to give if the heart is in the right attitude. When one can feel and appreciate the joys and sorrows of others, the kind words will come naturally." The Psalmist said, "May the word of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight...". To speak kindness first begins by thinking kind thoughts, by feeling kind things toward our neighbors and acting upon it. Kindness does not begin and end by thinking up a kind thing to do to somebody in need, it means we must actually do the thing we set our mind on! Kindness is a habit. The bad habit of gossip and unkindness are the fruit of selfishness and pride. To form habits of kindness, we must first put sin to death in our lives; crucify our fleshly desires of desiring the hearer to like us, of feeding our hearers with unkind words against a third party (not present) in order to damage their reputation (little thinking that if someone spoke that way about you- the damage it would cause you). It begins with repenting and then thanking the Lord for his grace in revealing our weakness to us and then relying on his Grace to give us the wisdom and strength to put that smallest and most damaging thing , the tongue, under control. If "even a child is known by his deeds", then so much more so a woman who speaks with kindness or one who is constantly speaking much damage!

I too often find myself the latter and then don't know how to begin in picking up the pieces of my slander, but I do know that God's grace abounds and all I need to do is repent and cry out for forgiveness and trust in his unfailing grace the next time I need to open my mouth. And the most encouraging part is that, the practice begins at home... with my children and husband. When I can first speak kindness to them then I am ready to speak kindness to those the Lord places in my life as neighbors.