Be Slow To Speak

JAMES 1:19  My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

Personally, I have a  big struggle with this. I am a very reactive person and seldom pause before I speak. I am praying for change in this area.

 How many times have you said something and later regretted it? Too often we practice: Speak now and think later. What would happen if you silently consulted with God before speaking? If you thought about, and prayed about, everything you said -- before you said it -- outcomes would be different.

1 PETER 3:10  If you want a happy, good life, keep control of your tongue, and guard your lips from telling lies. Words are powerful and should be used to accomplish a purpose. Don't just talk for no reason.

PROVERBS 17:28 Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue. Remember, you can always learn more by listening than you can by talking. Be slow to speak!

 James 3:2-12The Message (MSG)

3 ^1-2 Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.

^3-5 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!
^5-6 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.
^7-10 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!
^10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

No one will ever be perfect at holding their tongue but we can get better at it!

 God, please help me to control my tongue. Amen!