Wrapping it up: Taming Your Tongue in a Speak Your Mind World

Have you ever opened your mouth when you shouldn’t have? Have you ever assumed something, spit it out and then realized you were wrong? I think I completely failed this week just to learn a lesson and share it with you.

When we tell the Lord, “Use me” or when we tell Him, “Send me”, we think it will be this fantastic missionary journey where whole cannibalistic villages are saved by His grace and “your willingness” to be sent in His name.

We do NOT realize that by being sent or being willing to do His work, it may look completely different than the picture we have painted in our mind. We have to learn hard lessons sometimes to break us, for us to be humbled, for us to change, or to learn His ways.

I have spent some time thinking about my mouth, thinking that I am getting better. Even through these weeks where I have been trying to keep quiet, I realized that we can keep quiet all we want to, but really, our heart is what the issue is about.

This week I accused my husband of doing something he didn’t do. In my head, I was convinced. I have been struggling with my tongue for years now, so that bitter root sprung right back up.

My issue was (is) a heart issue. How do I get rid of my heart issue when my past is always there to creep up on me, like a nightmare that never goes away?

When I found that I was wrong, I felt as if a weight was plummeted on me. A weight I thought I gave to the Lord was on me again like a ton of bricks. 

What if my assumption were true? What time would that add to my life to respond in anger? How would I be pleasing the Lord by getting angry? What does my mouth accomplish, but cause more grief and more turmoil to a situation? 

The finger was pointed right back at me today, and I feel as though I want to hide from the world because of it. Have you ever had that feeling?

When will we learn that we need to bow the knee in all things?

Keeping quiet is not about shutting our mouths like obedient wives that hold it all in until we explode. Keeping quiet does not mean that what we say doesn’t matter.

Keeping quiet is practice for your (my) heart issue. Our God said that our hearts are desperately wicked, who can know it. Then why don’t we believe that our husbands aren’t the only ones that need to fix their hearts.

I realized that I was keeping quiet for a while — but my mind and heart was still brewing up anger inside. Who was I deceiving? Certainly not the Lord.

If your husband never changes, will you still obey the Lord? If everyone wrongs you, will you still react in a godly manner? If people slander you, will you pray for them? If you are tempted to gossip, will you spread venom or refrain from partaking in it?

The reasons why we choose to open our mouths will not add a single day to our lives, but they do have eternal consequences.

… and if NOT… will we still follow?