Tongue Safety

James 3:8-No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

Proverbs 12:18-Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

I grew up with guns in the house. My dad, an avid outdoorsman and gun enthusiast, kept a collection of all types of firearms. The oldest in the collection--passed down to him by my grandfather--were kept in the gun cabinet. Other guns were kept under his bed in cases, stacked in closets, laid to rest on dressers and hutches. He had small zippered travel holsters for pistols, and long hard cases for buck rifles and shotguns. None of them were locked.

They didn't have to be. While you may look aghast at this seemingly irresponsible negligence on the part of my parents, my sisters and I were perfectly safe. So schooled were we--from the time we were mere infants--to regard guns with the utmost of respect, we would not have approached even the area where the weapons were without cautious reverence. We knew what they were, what they would do, the permanence of the repercussions, the finality of the results. With guns there was never a "do-over." As a teen, I learned that--with the exception of two revolvers Dad kept on top of mom's wardrobe with the handles pointed out--none of the guns were loaded. But this tidbit of information was superfluous, because I had been brought up to believe that, "every gun is a loaded gun," and to treat them as such.

My heavenly Father created me with my own personal deadly weapon: my tongue. But He didn't leave me to my own devices, He's given me very precise instructions for its use. In His word He's warned me over and over again about its power, its lethal capabilities, its unreliability, its tendency to misfire. But unlike Daddy's gun safety education, I've not taken those warnings to heart. As a child, I would not have dared to retrieve an item from a closet shelf without first carefully examining the spot--standing on a chair if necessary--gingerly running my fingers over the location, and calling to double-check that the area in question was a de-militarized zone. Yet, as a grown adult, I'll shoot my mouth off in the most haphazard way. I take no precautions, exercise no patience or reserve, and forget to ask my Father's permission. I wield the world's most deadly weapon entirely unthinking and, frankly, unconcerned of the havoc I leave in my path. Sisters, "these things ought not to be." Starting now, I commit to ask the Holy Spirit's help in following some basic "tongue safety."

1) Treat every word as a loaded word. (Amen! Isn't it though?!)
2) Be as vigilant, careful, even reticent with the use of my tongue as I would be if approaching a venomous snake, a ravenous beast, an uncontrolled fire, or a deadly weapon. After all, that is exactly what the Lord tells me it is.
3)Never be deceived that you have your weapon unloaded and the safety on. That you are in control. You can't control the tongue! Instead, yield your weapon--every day, every hour, every minute--to the Weapon Maker, the Safety Instructor, the Expert Marksman.
4)Remember, just like with guns, there are no "do-overs." Once said, you can't call those words back. They've been discharged, and you will give an account for their intent, aim, target, and carnage.