Prayers for a Guarded Tongue

Here’s this week’s entry from Pray Big for Your Life

Chapter  6

  Did I Just Say That? Prayers for a Guarded Mouth

Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Psalm 141:3

 

Recently, my family and I made the short drive from our home in Austin to the small city of Waco, about a hundred miles north. You know Waco–home of the Texas Ranger Museum, the original Dr. Pepper factory, the Brazos River, and of course, Baylor University, my alma mater. It was homecoming and I was looking forward to seeing some old friends.

My buddy Steve Carrell and I used to travel together and lead revival meetings. Steve is now Music Director at First Baptist Church of San Antonio. Our paths don’t cross nearly enough. So, when I heard that Steve was in Waco for homecoming, I immediately started looking for him. My search didn’t take long. As I rounded the corner near the Baylor Bear Pits (yes, it’s where they keep the bears), I saw my friend Steve. He had that same goofy grin, looked like he’d lost a few pounds and was talking to three rather large college-age young men. Steve didn’t see me.

Now if you’re a guy, and you run into a friend that you haven’t seen in years and you want to pick up right where things left off, what do you do? Guys, you know: You harass him. You insult him. You tell him how bad he looks, etc. He wouldn’t feel loved and he would wonder what was wrong if you were suddenly nice to him. So, in classic Man it’s great to see you. You look terrible form, I yelled at Steve from about ten feet away: “Hey, why don’t you just shut up?” Steve stopped his conversation with the three giant man-boys, turned and stared at me, recognition not yet showing in his face. Knowing that it was only a moment before my good friend both recognized me and saw the humor in what I was doing, I said it again, only a bit louder: “That’s right, why don’t you just shut up?”

What happened then all kind of moved in slow motion. As the three giants simultaneously turned and snarled at me, I came to the troubling realization that the man I was being so rude to wasn’t Steve. He looked like Steve, sounded like Steve, acted like Steve, but he wasn’t Steve. And I had just yelled at him to shut up, twice.

Open Wide and Say Nothing

I think the biblical writer of Ecclesiastes showed great wisdom when he exhorted his readers to be men and women of few words (see Eccl. 5:2). For me, the more I speak, the greater the opportunity I have to say something that will hurt somebody. James, the half-brother of Jesus and writer of the New Testament Epistle that bears his name, also knew the deadly power of the tongue. He wrote: Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be, (James 3:5-10).

I stand guilty as charged. I’ve used my words to hurt those I love, to exaggerate, to lie, to over promise, to curse and insult. James said it well: This should not be! And like toothpaste once it’s out of the tube, harmful words are impossible to recall once you’ve said them.

So pray for your tongue.

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