Today I read Psalm 38 - 39. David asks the Lord to help him bridle his tongue. As many have said before me, the tongue is the most offensive part of the body, or in other words, that which comes out of the man defiles him. Our words have great power. We have the ability to heal or to hurt with our words. To build up, or to tear down. It is a hard thing to steel ourselves against the words of others. All too often we let the opinions of others rule how we think of ourselves. I am reminded of Star Trek the series. There is an episode where they meet up with Abraham Lincoln and he calls Lt. Uhura an unkind word and immediately apologizes for it saying he didn't wish to offend. Lt. Uhura then replies that she is not offended and that people in her time have learned not to fear words. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all learn not to fear words.
How often do we let ourselves get entangled in an unpleasant situation because we don't want to be called an unkind word or we stand up for ourselves because we don't want to be thought of in a certain manner. The only being whose opinion of us matters in the end is that of Heavenly Father. We need to make sure He thinks well of us, because that means we are doing what is right. And I promise you that He will only use appropriate words to describe us. Otherwise we must steel ourselves to the unkind words of the adversary. Until tomorrow.
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