EXCERPT: Our words can either speak life, or our words can speak death. Our tongues can build others up, or they can tear them down.
It has been said that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
The church that James is writing to was full of small-minded people, who gossiped about each other and tore one another apart with their tongues.
We are quick to avoid murder, stealing, and drunkenness, but we often assassinate fellow believers and leave destruction in our wake by the way we use our tongues.
Husbands have stabbed their wives with words that are as sharp as daggers. And wives have lashed out with tongues that cut and pierce.
Parents have devastated their children by repeated blasts of venom.
While, children have exploded at their parents with hurls of hurt that can level the family; like a bomb to a city.
The message in James letter:
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
If you and I launch verbal snowballs of destruction, they will have devastating consequences on others.
Notice how James connects sins of the tongue with sins of the body.
He does this because our words usually lead to corresponding deeds.
The tongue can express or repress; offend or befriend; affirm or alienate; build or belittle; comfort or criticize; delight or destroy.
USING THE ACRONYM T.H.I.N.K - ASK THESE 5 QUESTIONS:
Q1: "T" - Is it True?
Remember this rule about gossip: "The more interesting it is, the more likely it is to be false."
Q2. "H" - Is it Helpful?
Will your words help bring about a solution. A resolution to the problem? Are they Helpful?
Q3. "I" - Is it Inspiring?
Will your words build up ...or will they tear down? Are Your Words Inspiring?
Q4. "N" - Is it Necessary?
Do we have to say anything at all? Is the comment really Necessary?
Q5. "K" - Is it Kind?
Are your words based ...on a heart that truly cares for others? Is your heart filled with Kindness? Is it Kind?
THINK - "T" Is it True? - "H" Is it Helpful? - "I" Is it Inspiring? - "N" Is it Necessary? -"K" Is it Kind?
T-H-I-N-K..... before you speak.
Talk Less
Your chances of causing destruction with your words are directly proportional to the amount of time you spend with your mouth open.
Abraham Lincoln said, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
President Calvin Coolidge said, "I have never been hurt by anything I did not say."
Proverbs 10:19 puts it this way: "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent."
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