Words

Mark began a great sermon series on Sunday called Words. I picked up on this verse to think about throughout the week:

James 3:2
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

A silly little thing like words keep us from being perfect. Isn’t that so true??? We try so hard to “do” the right things, but most of the time if we would just “say” the right things, it would be so much better. How we speak is definitely the thing that we should all be working on ALL of the time. It’s so easy to say something hurtful or speak before having all of the information. I think we’ve all had that moment where we have a pit in our stomach from something inappropriate that we have said.

We use words as weapons or to invoke pity. We use them to manipulate or to offend people. We use them to get ahead and we use them to change people’s perceptions of other people. We use sarcasm to deflect our true feelings and we tell jokes that would make our mother’s blush. We take a tool that God gave us to uplift and encourage and constantly use it wrong.

I know that it’s something I work on a lot…and fail a lot, too. But my commitment remains to do whatever it takes to get my mouth in check. Especially as a Christian! I’m not alone in the fight…I have the Holy Spirit inside of me to check my heart. And, if I will listen, he will be clear when it’s time to shut my mouth!