Silence is golden... duct tape is silver...

The past few days, I have learned very quickly that silence is sometimes the best answer to eventually awkward situations. Most of the time that I open my mouth, I find that I shove my foot in up to my knee... and that's only to breathe.
I've been learning the lesson of holding my tongue (Slightly less uncomfortable than learning patience)... and what a hard lesson it is... James 3 explores this idea of taming our tongues. One of the illustrations that is used is a bit that is put into a horses mouth.
When I was 8, I owned a Quarter horse named T.C. (Taffy's Cash Bar). He was a gorgeous animal that stood close to 17 hands and towered over me... he was a rather calm horse and I loved him. When it came time to ride him, I would saddle him up... and then came the bridle. Part of the bridle, the bit, goes in the horses mouth. The purpose of this piece of metal is to control the horse... as it is connected to the reins. When the rider pulls the reins to the right, the horse turns right. When they pull left, the horse will turn left... you get the idea.

James 3:3-12 reads: When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

I always find my toes being stepped on when I read this passage... James has this way of spelling everything out, no frills, no fanciful words... just what you need to heard, how you need to hear it. He even provides handy illustrations in case you're stubbornly thick like me sometimes.
I look at it this way... just like horses, we need a bridle to guide our steps, turn us in the right direction and keep us out of trouble... God's spirit is that bridle... we should be seeking his direction, asking Him to guide our steps, our actions and most definitely, our words... the tongue may be a small part of our body... but it can cause the largest problems.
Hope you are having a blessed Monday!


Photo credit: Untitled by: Steven Lilley used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license