Those that know me, know that I love to vacation in Disney World. My parents own a house down there and my wife and I make a yearly pilgrimage to pay homage to the mouse every summer. When we are down there, we attend a church called Real Life Church in Clermont, FL. I had searched for a church to go to while on vacation in Florida for many years and came across this church by pure accident. One of the things I like so much about Real Life is the preaching of Pastor Justin Miller. In his messages, he’s not afraid to speak the truth in love, even if what he says may hurt yet be true.
When I’m not in sunny Florida, I find myself listening to his weekly sermons via the iTunes podcast. This week, he talked about James 3 and how we need to tame our tongue. This message hit me pretty hard. I had a phone conversation with a pastor this week that was experiencing divisiveness in his church. I also talked with a worship leader that is experiencing the same thing in his church. It seems that gossip and slander are a theme in churches all across the country.
Pastor Justin emphasized verse 3 that we can tame so many different kinds of animals, but we can’t seem to manage to tame our own tongues. We can charm snakes. We can train killer whales with whistles and hand motions. We can train elephants to stand on their hind legs. We can do all these things, yet we still manage to put our foot in our mouth on a consistent basis.
He also went in to discussion about verse 4, how large, massive ships are steered by a small rudder. The tongue is such a small part of our body, yet it can corrupt and control the rest of the body. These days, our spoken words aren’t the only words that hurt. The words and phrases we put on Facebook and Twitter also do major damage to the people around us. They may not be spoken words, but they are powerful none the less.
Pastor Justin put out a good idea for those of us who struggle with this issue. He said that we should use the 10 second rule. In the 10 seconds before you say something, ask God is what you are about to say honoring to him. Ask him to give you the right words to say in that situation. Imagine if more people did that. Imagine if more people actually thought about what they would say before they said it. Imagine if people actually asked themselves, “Is this post God honoring” before they posted something on Facebook.
It was comforting for me to hear Pastor Justin’s message this week. It let me know that there are churches across the country that have the same struggles.
Do you need to implement a 10 second rule in your life?
Good stuff! So often we forget that our words are a very effective tool, if used wisely, to represent you and tell people who you are and what you're about. Thinking about what we say is just as important as thinking about what we do. #NothingAtAll
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