Watch what you say....

We must watch what we say. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 18:21, that words are powerful, even to the point of giving life and death.  We can either speak life (encouragement, building up) into someone's life - or we can speak death (discouragement, tearing down) into someone's life.

James 3:3-12 says this:


A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!


It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!


We see from this passage of scripture that it is beyond challenging to control our tongue.  We must ask God to control our tongues, to give us the words to say in each and every situation.  We must pray for God to fill our minds with life giving thoughts so that we will speak life at all times.  The verses above in bold type are so important to carry with us.  We must carefully consider the fact that we can literally kill someones spirit, their self-confidence, their self-worth, all with words that come from our mouth.  


My prayer is that we all build each other up and encourage each other with our words.  Young people, you have a unique opportunity to build your fellow classmates up at school while they are still young.  If you see someone at school that is withdrawn or that other kids talk negatively about...take some time to speak a word of encouragement into their life.  Build that person up.  Tell them that God loves them and you love them too.  You have no idea what your show of love and encouragement will do for that person.


The old adage is true: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"  - choose to remain silent, instead of speaking death and killing someone.  What you say is just that powerful......


Live for Christ....speak life!