Sticks and Stones...

Sticks and stones may break my bones...but words can never hurt me. I think that anyone in the center of the gossip mill or entangled in a rumor (true or false) would beg to differ here. We have all, at some point in our lives, been hurt by someone's words, or have hurt someone with our words. Hurting someone can be as easy as throwing a stone in the sea. But do we have any idea how deep that stone can go?

James likens it a wildfire, saying the tongue is like a fire, setting the woods ablaze with just a small spark. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew, "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." 

Our words, plainly and clearly, have a cause and effect relationship when we speak them. The words the cause, and the effect never fully known by us. We simply can't know how deeply our words affect others, for better or for worse, when we speak. Our words can be the most dangerous weapon in our arsenal or the most healing in our medicine cabinets, they can be the most destructive or constructive tool in our tool belts, tearing down or building up. 

Christians, we have a choice, each and every day, in how to use our words. Do we bless God with our tongues, then turn and curse our brethren? James says that fountain cannot send forth both sweet water and bitter, both salt and fresh, neither can the fig tree bear olive berries or the vine, figs. 

The most important part of my study this morning in James 3:1-12, was that the tongue cannot be tamed by man alone, yet if I ask God for wisdom, James 1:5 says that God will give it liberally. He will help me to think before I speak, be slow to anger, and sin not in my wrath. As I said yesterday, there are no coincidences with the Lord. This study came on the heels of some upsetting news. News that made me want to pick up the phone and set some things and some people straight. But God intervened. He made me step back and I was immediately thankful for His intervention. I could have made a bad situation worse. I could have pushed lost people further from the Lord, and in turned tarnished my own testimony. 

Instead He showed me that in trusting in Him and His will, even when I don't understand it, I protected my children from someone else's wildfire.