Out of our Mouths, Into the Record

Yesterday, I was confronted so many times with the opportunity to put my feet to my faith, so to speak.  We talked about the ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."  If you recall, I wrote about how we should dig deeper into that commandment, making our word golden, not entering into record anything as fact unless we knew it for sure.

I cannot believe how many times I talked yesterday!  I was constantly being checked.  Coffee with friends, lunch with coworkers, telephone conversations . . . all start off so sincerely and genuinely.  Yet it's not long before little comments - unneeded, unnecessary, and sometimes unkindly - begin to enter in.  In almost every conversation, I had to offer my opinion!  I kept trying to stop myself, and sometimes I was successful.  But more often than not, I talked.

I don't believe I said an unkind or an untrue word yesterday.  But I said many unnecessary ones.  Words that didn't need to be spoken, especially when a friend was in tears and needed someone to listen.  You know, I'm starting to think that technology, and the different opportunities we have to communicate, have done nothing but tear down true communication.  Everyone knows I hate to talk on the phone and I would rather text.  But I truly believe that that form of "talking" is destroying my ability to talk face to face (or mouthpiece to mouthpiece). 

I assume I'm not the only one with this problem!  That's why I'm taking today to talk about this again.  The book of James, especially the third chapter is full of warnings about what comes out of our mouths:  "This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!" verses 7-10, the Message.

Tomorrow we will finish the Ten Commandments, and Friday we'll do a summary of the whole series.  Next week I'll be writing out of 1 Corinthians!

Will you join me today in focusing and praying on keeping our mouths, our talk, even our thoughts holy and pure?  I wonder just how much God can do with Christians like that!