Tongue Check

"Oops" "I didn't really mean it.." "No offense.." "I was just joking" "Lighten up.." "Come on you know it was funny" How many times have you heard or used excuses like these in a conversation with someone who you just insulted but are trying to back out? Yeah, me too. Too often things slip out that we instantly wish we could pull back into our mouths and swallow forever, but it's too late. Spoken words are said and last forever. Even under forgiveness the scars remain. More than likely the most common times you let hurtful words slip out are when you're tired and frustrated. People push your buttons and you just snap at them by insulting them, becoming sarcastic (yes, I'm professional at that one), or just not being patient. Yesterday at work, I got several comments about friendly service or my smile, but today I had so many people ask if I was tired or having a bad day... What was the difference? Maybe I was tired.. but should that change the way I speak to people? Should my feelings affect my influence on those around me? God forbid I let it happen again. The Bible has a lot to say about words and how permanently beneficial or damaging they can be. Proverbs 18:21 says "the tongue has the power of life and death." Holy cow, we hold some mega power just in our tiny mouths. And Proverbs 12:18 says "reckless words pierce like a sword." So the Bible is pretty serious when God tells us to be careful what we say. A good way to be either a light for the Lord or a terrible rep to his name is by how we talk. A friend of mine told me to let my character speak louder than my words so that I could win unbelievers to Christ "without a word." When you hear a teenager on the street cussing up a storm with his buddies, we don't naturally think he's a Bible-believing Christian. But how often do we as claimed God-fearing Christians slack in the guarding of our tongues in order to fit in? I can confess I've done it myself before. But when I sit back and think about it, instead of being cool for ten minutes with my non-Christian friends by talking like them, what if I spent those ten minutes witnessing so that I can spend eternity with them later? That sounds like a better use of my time.. So why don't I have the guts?? I need to pray daily for God to let his Holy Spirit help me overcome the people-pleasing urge to talk like everyone around me. Even the small words that aren't really bad, if we let them become too comfortable slipping off our tongues, do we sound different enough to outsiders that God will be represented well? Sometimes looking at our life, we have a totally different vocabulary around different people. James 3 addresses this as salt water and fresh water coming from the same spring. It shouldn't be happening. We need to keep our mouths in check and never have to pull the "oops" card out again. Even under stress or fatigue or attack from someone else we cannot attack back. Philippians 4:5 says "let your gentleness be known to all." This is the perfect description of a calm, clean-talking, patient under stress, Christian person who will win their friends over "without a word." And that's how I want to be known. I want to put on the fruit of the Spirit and be changed from the inside so that my words will pour out with love and gentleness demonstrating the character of the Saviour I represent!!