The tongue
Proverbs 12:17-19 He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit. There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but a moment.
James 3:5,6,8, 9 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of natures; and it is set on fire by hell. . . But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God
There is much written in His word regarding the tongue and words. And for very good reason, since they can be used to hurt, blame, lie, gossip about, or edify, praise, encourage, correct, and allow one to hear love. Such a tiny muscle, yet it, through our minds, can cause hurt…or it can lead someone on a fine and progressive path.
However, so often it causes damage. One allows the tongue to busily escape with judgmental thoughts, negative words toward another, lies, or sometimes just “innocent” embellishments. We all know examples of this. For some reason, we all want to be in on the “know,” whether we truly “know” or not. So we pass on a story, at times maybe add an enlargement, make it bigger, grander, but all in all, something that is beyond the truth. This is GOSSIP, and the Lord does NOT like it. It may be maligning, it may be building someone greater than the truth, but it is still an attempt for you to appear more in the know and spread information and “lies.”
As people, we have a general desire to appear more important, more in the know, closer to the ‘hero’, or disgustingly, more scathing of one ‘someone’ has deemed unworthy. (JUDGMENT is for another blog!)
Shame on us. Gossip is a form of lying and creates the spread of a fire of more information, not necessarily true, but the story spreads….and can destroy.
One of the most recent for me involved a young man who was drowning across the street from my home. He was rescued by another couple of men, was gray and non-responsive initially. EMS arrived, the men had started CPR, and the young man had some response, but even by the time he was loaded into one of the ambulances, he was not coherent, so it was unclear if this was the result of trauma from near-drowning, or if in fact he had suffered permanent brain damage resulting from being without oxygen for too long.
Yet, one of the onlookers, just an observer, said he heard the young man had been drinking and maybe using heroin. That’s definitely a negative embellishment. And a totally unfair pronouncement. And who knows if it is true? Even if it is, perhaps this was the manner God was finally grabbing hold of this young man and showing him the danger of his ways. But it could be this young man lives a hard-working, conscientious way of life, and just got caught up in a riptide, and almost lost his life. Yet, onlookers who knew nothing of him, only watching the drama unfold were eager to fill voids in a POSSIBLE scenario. I urge them to pick up a writing utensil and start putting words down to create a story and let it unfold. Do not let those theories, guesses and possible hurtful remarks escape your lips. Squelch them. They are hurtful, unnecessary and no one in the crowd of strangers knows if any of the comments are true, other than he was pulled from the water, nearly drowned.
How many scenarios can you think of that you have heard, maybe friends who have been lied about, stories embellished about you or a significant other, relative, and so on. We all know the damage untruths can cause. We are all hearing about bullies and bullying and see a LOT of young people commit suicide to escape the nasty words others spew about them; all stemming from the muscle in our mouths.
The tongue, that little muscle that can do so much—enjoy the tastes of foods, bother a sore spot in your mouth, alert a dentist to a tender area to prevent bigger problems from occurring, and speak all sorts of words. Make your words kind and truthful, or omit speaking at all if you cannot give a fully honest report of what you SAW or EXPERIENCED.
I want to keep my tongue under tight control for my life and “mybellaviews.”
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