Controlling Your Speech

   How difficult is it when you are in the “heat” of a discussion or argument to not say something you will later regret?  We are so quick with our tongue that the words fly out before we think.  When we are angry or emotionally charged, we say things that we would not otherwise ever let out of our mouths.  

   We know words bite and hurt.  Relationships have been brutally damaged.  What we recall of someone is something that stung from what they said.  Nicknames have demoralized and depressed people.  

   I had a close personal friend growing up that was given a less-than-flattering nickname by kids older than him to include his brothers.  Kids would tease him constantly using this name.  I saw the hurt in his face whenever called that name.  One day, even though I was his close friend, I called him that name and the hurt in his face was the deepest I had ever seen.  Never again would I call him that as I learned my lesson at his expense.  

   The thing is, I should have known better as I had a nickname too, which to this day I despise and it hurts thinking about the memories I have of growing up with it.

   In the book of James (chapter 3:3-8), the tongue is described as a very small part of the body but oh, what power and damage it can inflict.  Just as a single spark can cause a great for ...

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