Tame the Tongue

I am not one to laugh at somebody’s misfortune, but there are times that I cannot help being tickled because a story is just so funny. My friend, Billy Ray in McComb, MS, was cooking barbecue and beans for a mission’s conference at a local church. He was walking across the church parking lot with two 5-lb cans of beans in a paper bag. The bag suddenly ripped open and one of those cans of beans fell out and landed right on Billy Ray’s big toe.

Billy Ray said that he began jumping up and down and hollering things in that church parking lot that he wished he had never said. The jumping up and down made the other can of beans in the paper bag roll right out of the same hole as the other can of beans and would you believe it landed right on the same big toe! Billy Ray sure learned a lesson on what not to say in a church parking lot! Despite that, he exemplified a true servant’s heart because even with a broken toe Billy Ray came right into the church and cooked the barbecue and beans anyways.

As much as we would like to think that we are righteous, unfortunately, many of us can identify with James 3:9-10:

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

We should not sing praises unto the Lord in one breath and then gossip about someone with our next breath. God’s love for you is no different from His love for your enemies. Ask God today to purify your thoughts and cleanse the words that come out of your mouth so that with everything you say it will bring honor and glory to God.

Category: Scripture