Words Matter: Week 1/Day 4

Read: Psalm 59:12; James 3:7-8

SOAP: James 3:7-8

S: For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.
But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

O&A: Hoo boy. I cannot say that I'm comfortable here. Nor should I be. That word 'tame' is used in this passage as both tamed AND restrained/curbed. Anyone else ever get upset, start speaking, and the more they speak the angrier they get? It's like adding fuel to the fire sometimes. Please tell me I'm not alone in this! Our tongues can be like a poison dart, piercing to the very core of a person to hurt them. Our words can also be a healing balm. We must choose wisely.

P: Abba, my beloved Father, I don't want my tongue to be a restless evil, full of deadly poison. I don't want that to be the overflow of my heart. Help me face and address the frustrations, the unmet expectations, the hurts, the trials, all the things that could be building up in me that would cause me to lash out, and purge it from me; heal me from it. I relinquish it all to You. Please help me keep from taking it all back, or adding new fuel to the fire. Help me build up the treasures of the fruit of Your spirit, so that is what flows from my lips. In Yeshua's name, Amein.

As I continue meditation on this verse, I feel I need to add this... How do we typically tame an animal? (Specifically I'm thinking of a dog, which is the only kind of animal I've ever tamed). With words. So how interesting, that the same way I can use my tongue to form the words to TRAIN an animal.. the same tongue I use to train an animal, cannot be trained itself. Whoa.