“Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.” (Proverbs 13:3 NLT)
The "tongue" gets us into more trouble than about anything else about us. In the New Testament James said, "Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." (James 3:2 NLT) The easiest place to let our "tongues" get us in trouble is with the people that are closest to us...in our families and with our friends. We let down the guard and say things to the ones we love the most that we might not say to anyone else. To be honest, I'm less concerned with the verbal gaffes I make with people in general than I am with those I make with my wife, children, grandchildren and friends. They matter more to me than anyone else in the whole world! I don't intentionally want to wound anyone with my words...but we've all done it at times. When we know we've messed up with something we've said, the best thing we can do is quickly apologize and make it right. Don't let the wounds our words cause fester and become a full-blown "relational infection!" And, sometimes we apologize even when our words are true, simply because we didn't say things properly or with genuine concern for the one who heard them. The thing is...we have to be committed to saving our best words for the ones nearest to us. Sometimes the best course of action is to keep our mouths shut and say nothing at all. That's self-restraint and it isn't easy...trust me! Let's learn to praise people, thank them, love them and build them up with our words. And, when we say the wrong thing at the wrong time and/or in the wrong way, let's be quick to make it right. Leave as few verbal "wounds" on others psyche as possible.
