"Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way." James 3:10
How is everyone doing on writing out the scriptures? I am a little behind but intend to get caught up over the weekend. There is something incredibly satisfying about writing down an entire book from the bible.
Beth begins this lesson by showing us how James begins to use the word we. It is used six times (that's what I counted so please correct me if you counted more!) in just a few verses. For myself, I loved that James jumped right in next to me in admitting that we all stumble in many ways. It's refreshing to be reminded via the bible that even as a believer I will not be perfect. This seems to be the theme of my life lately and I am embracing every opportunity to take those reminders to heart.
Having a mouth that is prone to speak inappropriately verse 6 hits me hard. My tongue is capable of setting my whole course of life on fire. Did anyone else feel struck by this?
This past week has been a very emotional, spiritually busy week for our family. Along with my nephew's accident, Kyle's uncle is in the hospital following heart surgery and not doing very well. Added to that is my answer for the personal question:
When was the last time you were aware of the tongue's capacity to blister and scar?
This week at school a parent of the boy who broke his arm has been very verbal and aggressive towards another child who she is claiming is responsible for breaking her sons arm. The truth is that the TA's and the principal believe it to be an accident. The boy with the broken arm even admitted originally that he simply tripped and fell. The issue then becomes one of the mom wanting some type of vindication for the fact that her child won't be able to finish basketball playoffs or participate in spring baseball. So the boy and his mom are both saying awful, untrue things about another child. It has become such an issue that the other child is being harassed by other kids and made to feel like he is a horrible child. It's hard to watch because I can see him feeling awful that other kids and a parent are saying such things about him. He will probably never forget this time in his life.
Beth goes on to have us look up Acts 2 and discusses how the tongue can be used for good or evil but that we have a choice each day on how we use it. It made me think about how the parent I was talking about could have called the other boy and simply said they knew it was an accident. How different would the situation be. It's so important that we take just a few moments to remember that every word that comes out of our mouth will have an impact. What that impact will be is up to us.
Has there been a time in your life when your bitterness turned sweet because of the redemptive power of Jesus? Please share if you feel comfortable.
Early in marriage we had a lot of issues that we needed to work out and doing so left me incredibly bitter. I had gone from an abusive relationship to a wonderful one, but even wonderful has its pitfalls. Sadly I wasn't able to get over some of the disappointment and hurt that come with simply being human and having failures. I held on to my bitterness for years and when I had to give up getting my Masters Degree because I got pregnant, I counted that another bitterness to hold against my husband. Yes, I know it takes two to make babies, it was just easier to blame him for me not being able to do what I wanted to do. It took me several years, lots of time on my knees and some great Christian friends for me to begin to realize that I was the one destroying our marriage by living in the well of bitterness. Thankfully God is merciful and he has changed my heart and in doing so my relationship with my husband has been restored.
No comments:
Post a Comment