Guard your tongue

 14 Dec 25

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Life Application Study Bible Devotion

Guard your tongue

What you say and what you don't say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn't. Examples of an untamed tongue include gossiping, putting others down, bragging, manipulating, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. Before you speak, ask: "Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?"

“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.”James‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

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Reflections

People always say, whatever flows out of your mouth comes right from the heart. Have you ever heard someone said a joke that sounded really off and they ended it with a “just kidding”? I kid you not, they ain’t kidding when they said that. There is a tinge of truths in there even though they try to downplay it. So yes, guard our tongue before everything just becomes spilled milk.

Nobody is perfect in this world. We all stumble and get stumbled. But if we can prevent our words from stumbling someone that would be much much nicer. What the devotional suggests is a practical way of preventing this. Pause and ask ourselves before we speak. Easier said than done.

Like who doesn’t know this theory put up your hand. And who have tried and yet realised that our minds runs much faster than anything else. Like we are searching for answers even when people are talking. (Not listening attentively). We try to come up with solutions for other’s problems (when all they need is a listening ear), etc. i kind of felt in order to pause and speak right, we need to learn how to listen first. Don’t keep wanting to speak. You will have your chance but listen to what the other person is saying and NEVER interrupt. It’s rude and also means that we aren’t really listening. We are talking to bring our points across and did not even try to process and hear what the conversation is all about)

Even for the untamed tongue. Things like gossiping, putting others down, bragging, manipulating, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. I honestly say if I told you I did nothing of this, I would be lying. There’s a very human part of me or even you when we are in this world. Before I come to know Christ, I think all it’s normal to lie for example. Everyone does that. All they get is some small punishment and that’s it. They get away with it! Even our parents lie! I’m sure they tell you that you were either picked up from the garbage bin or from the drain sort of thing. People cannot tell the truth for whatever reasons and makes the world a confused place.

So friends, as we are reading this and know that the untamed tongue is really a bad thing, let us all aim to guard our speech. Be slow to speak and quick to listen.