Thoughts for Thursday by guest blogger Emily Farmer

Tongue Taming

For such a small muscle in your body the Bible tells us it's pretty powerful. James says it well doesn't he? James 3:5, "Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark." The question you have to ask yourself is- Are you going to use it in a positive way or a negative one. There is scripture upon scripture that warns us of using our tongues in a negative way. I love this one that is found in Proverbs 21:23, "Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble." Very simple! Just like my mama use to say, "If you can't say nothing nice, say nothing at all." Good advice that has kept me out of trouble a number of times.

However I will tell you that a number of times my tongue has gotten me into trouble. I am most often reminded of this when dealing with my 8 year old. Sometimes I forget that I am the mom, the leader, the mentor and I fall into the trap of being a bit of a smart mouth. I have been known even at times of saying hurtful things. OUCH!! Nothing like God our loving Father using the words and mind of an 8 year old to set me straight. I often do apologize and say I'm sorry. Then I pray for God's forgiveness and ask him to remove those hurtful words from that little 8 year old mind so that's not what he remembers me for. We are only human and humans are not perfect and we make mistakes. So if you find yourself needing to say I'm sorry, swallow your pride and just do it. Your heart will feel so much better in the long run.

When I ran across this verse I immediately fell in love with it. It's Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer." One thing that drew me to this verse was it's exactly my hearts desire. Meditating on his words and saying and doing things that is pleasing to him is exactly what I want to do all the days of my life. That's the character I want to possess. If I am meditating on HIS word then I am doing what 1 Corinthians 13:7 says "Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." I am showing and doing HIS word toward others. I am loving others like HIM. I am a trustworthy friend. I have hope in HIM and HIS word. I persevere the most important things in my heart and know to whom to be thankful I have all of them.

I pray you will consider claiming at least one of these verses and applying them to your own life.