Use Words

Words words everyday but not much to say.  Next week, elections ranging from small town councils to our nation's president will be decided.  With or without cries of foul play, "winners" will take office.  "Losers" will make alternate plans.  Because this year, among other things, has been the year of a very significant election, much airtime and ink have been dedicated to the use of words.  Some words have been informative and beneficial.  Others have been falsehoods and harmful.  Words and our use of them matter.

Enter James, the brother of Jesus.  The man who once thought his Brother to be crazy, felt the tug of the Spirit and grew into a spokesman and scribesman for the Faith.  He knew the power of words, especially the spoken kind. 

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James 3:1-12 (MSG)
1-2 Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7-10 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!
10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Living our everyday, Ordinary lives for Christ involves, in great part, offering our speech to God.  If we control every limb yet lose the lips, we come up short.  Our mouths should use words to . . .
1) Praise God.
2) Encourage others.
3) Speak truth.
4) Provide sound counsel.
5) Train our children.
6) Rebuke falsehood.
7) Share the gospel.

Our mouths should not be used to . . .
1) Curse God.
2) Discourage others.
3) Tell lies.
4) Lead others astray.
5) Provoke our children.
6) Endorse falsehood.
7) Spread rumors.

God provides the gift of words.  Use them well.

#ordinarylives