Taming the Tongue

"...the tongue is a small part of the body, but consider the trouble it causes...the tongue...is a fire...a world of evil among the body...no man can tame the tongue...out of the same mouth come both praise and cursing. This should not be." (James 3:5-10)

Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has really hurt, yelled, or slammed you down for one reason or another? I'm sure we have all been there, we have all felt the knife being stabbed into our backs by our friends or parents. It's during these times when we so badly want to speak our heart instead of our minds.

She was all I could ever want in a girl. Sweet, pretty, funny, popular, and most importantly, a Christian. We started talking and before I knew it, we were off on a date. We didn't even do anything except go to the mall and hang out on the swings at the city park, but that was just enough to take my heart completely away from me.

I wish the story had a happy ending, but unfortunately that wasn't in God's plan. The following two days she stopped talking to me and I was too shy to confront her about it. After another long 24 hours, it was brought to my attention in a letter she wrote that, "I just want to be friends." One minute she liked me, the next......friends. Being someone's friend was always a great thing to me, but hearing those words from her sent my world crashing down.

Being able to write, I started to compose a masterpiece of my thoughts. Not only was I hurt about what happened, I also wanted to let her know how she made me feel. Halfway through the letter, I just looked down and frowned. What was I doing? Even though I wanted so desperately to put my feelings on paper, even though I wanted to say so many times what my feelings were, I had to bite my lip, put the paper and pencil away, and tame my tongue.

Friends, our mouths can be sharper than a two-edged sword. Where wounds will someday heal, a wrong word will scar a person for life. I'm sure most of us have even dealt with a situation like mine. Maybe it was a best friend who went behind your back, or a parent who wouldn't let you go out for any apparent reason. No matter what happened, I knew there was only one place for me to go with my problem, only one thing to do, and it all started by getting on my knees. When all leave us and forsake us, there will always be One with us. When a date is broken, a punch thrown, or a temper lost, He has time and time again shown me that when all else fails, the love of the Lord always shines through. So the next time you face a situation like the one I faced or just wrote about, open up your Bible to 1 Peter 5:7 and read, "Cast all your cares on the Lord, for He cares for you," because there isn't a thing in the world that God loves more than you. May peace be with you.

Your Bro in Christ,
Tony Rhoda

(www.tddm.org)