Can You Tame Your Tongue?

Holy Land Picture of the Day

Senir Stream Today's picture is of the Senir Stream, a tributary of Banias at the headwaters of the Jordan River in northern Israel, near the ruins of Biblical Caesarea Philipi. It reminds us of Mark 8:27-28; "Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on James says, "No One Can Tame the Tongue" "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell" (James 3:5-6) Hey Gang:   We are in that time when, if you could buy a politician for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth, you could spend the rest of your life on a beach somewhere with your feet propped up sucking on an ice tea.  I am a wee bit tired of hearing those running for office retracting, remodeling, and restating not what you thought you heard but what they really meant which in many cases is quite foreign from the original offering. I flipped the channel selector to the 'hunt and find' mode and came across one of my very favorite movies of all time, namely Rooster Cogburn".  In this day when everything that can be shaken is being shaken, I believe old Rooster could straighten it all out and have it running smoothly within minutes.  But old Rooster also had a couple problems; he tended to nip on the jug, which in turn loosened his tongue.  Kathryn Hepburn, a missionary, was his traveling companion in the movie and played the part of his conscience.  She once related  to Rooster, when he was unusually boisterous, the following ditty, "There was a wise old owl who lived in an Oak; the more he saw the less he spoke: the less he spoke the more he heard, why can't we be like that wise old bird?" As a boy growing up in the mountains of Pennsylvania I learned that ditty in a different way,  "It is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Jesus gave a stern warning when He said, "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.  for by our words you will be justified and by your works you will be condemned."  (Matt. 12:36) Paul in his letter to the Ephesians put it this way, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so it will give grace to those who hear."  (Eph. 4:29) Soooo, my young friends. what words will you utter today?  Will they be words that bring honor to your heavenly Father?  As the old hillbilly said, "Choose your words wisely, for you may have to eat them!"  Blessings, Gramp