Filtering Our Words

As I continue to read Proverbs, The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven Scott, and sit under my pastor's teaching on James, I am getting hit over the head with information about the tongue. Even this morning my husband called me because he heard a teaching on the radio during his commute. This pastor called the tongue a "Two ounce slab of destruction". Ouch!

There are many ways I could share with you on this subject but this is what I have been pondering all weekend. This past week I opened Facebook to find a post from a young lady that took me back. This young lady has claimed to have a relationship with Jesus. It has been a few years since we have had much contact but her post was a prediction of her future career from a fortune telling site. The career choice was definitely not a godly business. First of all, why would you even open yourself up to this? Second, why would you participate further? Third, why would you post the results? This is a case in point of the present day "tongue". It's not just about what we speak verbally. Social media has opened up a whole new way to blab. Just like the words that come out of our mouths and cannot be retrieved, our "posts" often get us into trouble, and then? Well, those words are just "out there".

I am afraid that our filters are gone. We no longer have to write letters that would take weeks to be delivered, with deep thought and wise word choices. We no longer have to wait to get home to make a phone call. We can speak whatever is on our minds in seconds. But just because technology has made it quick and easy to "share our minds" doesn't mean that we should not be filtering our words in whatever fashion we choose to use them.

Here's another way in which our tongues can be misused. Proverbs 26: 18-19 speaks of a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death. This man deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!" Perhaps this young lady's Facebook post was meant as a joke but I'm not seeing the humor. My husband recently quoted Cary Grant from one of his films where he said "I am at my most serious when I am joking." Scripture says so much about the tongue. Perhaps we need to be less wordy and when we do speak by phone, email or Facebook, let's choose to be careful and filter our words and use them wisely.

Blessings,Kathy

Kathy's on staff at America's KESWICK in the Development Department. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 26 years. They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local church and has previously served as a Teaching Director for Community Bible Study. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God's Word.

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