Watch Your Tongue!

Eph 4:29 [Message version] says, "Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Sayonly what helps, each word a gift."

The NIV says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

I admit, this is something I still struggle with sometimes. Something I have learned over the years is that I have a gift of encouragement - this means, encouraging comes quite naturally to me; I love to say things that makes people feel good about themselves or what they do [of course, it's got to be worthy of encouragement. I will not encourage someone to shoplift or hurt others, for example] or give hope to someone's situation.

This ability to encourage comes from the ability to speak, but with the ability to speak also comes the ability to curse. These are two levels of cursing that I know of:

1) Obvious offensive / hurtful words. This includes foul mouthing people, spewing angry words at people, literally calling a curse upon people, bluntly putting people down, etc.

2) Subtle offensive / hurtful words. This includes making fun [teasing] of others, making light of a situation they may be in, (jokingly) calling them names or titles that really aren't appropriate, etc.

I've been guilty of both. In my walk with God, I have learned to throw out the first level of cursing and a portion of the second level. Admittedly though, there are times that I must still watch my tongue. The main area I need to do it in is making fun of others.

Oh Merr, does that mean we can't have a little fun? What a killjoy, what a spoilsport.

I'm not saying we can't have fun! There are many ways and many times I've had joking around with my friends. We laugh about it, we love it, we enjoy it. What I AM saying is to be wary and watchful of the degree of teasing we do or participate in. It's fine, it's good even, to do things all in fun, but once someone starts feeling uncomfortable or attacked, or if multiple people are ganging up on them, or if it is clearly not healthy for them to take so much embarrassment, are we to continue doing it?

I just stressed on the subtle level of hurtful words, but I think it applies even more so to the obvious level. If it is important to watch the way we talk in subtle, less abusive ways, then it is all the more important to watch the way we talk that OBVIOUSLY upsets others! Do you know why? Because Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death..." This means what we say has the potential to build someone up or tear them down. It has the potential to help someone make something of their life, or crumble into depression.

Maybe it sounds far-fetched to you. But you never know how much your words affect someone because you're not them, and they might not tell you. This is why watching the way I talk is such an important matter to me. It's absolutely vital to speak words that encourage, strengthen, build up, benefit, bless and help others (or even yourself - you achieve nothing by looking down on yourself or beating yourself up), because I don't know about you, but I don't want to be the one who causes someone to feel hurt, offended and condemned that might follow them or bring them to their very destruction.