Taming the Tongue

James 3
Taming the Tongue
1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or 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. 5Likewise 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. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt[a] water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Two weeks ago in the young adult service, Nickles shared about the new years resolutions and stuff like that. Then the pass Sunday, he shared with us his struggle to like show his love towards his family by giving hugs and just be patient and stuff like that. There were a few people who went up to share (Jerome, Christina, Jessica and Merell I think) about their struggles and how they can make that their new year's resolution to change that particular behavior or habit.

I was reading the Bible like last week and I came across this passage about Taming the Tongue. Wow, it's just so straight forward and it's something I wanna work on this year.

I don't cuss much but I did, and still am indirectly. Instead of using the word shit, I use crap... Instead of using God's name in vain, I use some other phrase... When I was reading this passage from the Bible, I remembered also Ps. Ronald Teo's sermon about using cuss words and stuff. Even though you're not using the word fuck (just an example) but you use some other four letter word (for instance, fish or basket!); it's just gonna be the same as saying the word fuck.... Same like for the word crap... It's same like shit.... I'm still cussing in a way...

Another struggle is also about talking nonsense and stupid stuff and all... I regret saying them after saying them which is no use... I don't know... It's just that after reading this passage, I've been very careful with the choice of words or stuff that I'm gonna say...

New Year resolution!

Please forgive me if you don't understand. I'm super sleepy right now and I'm typing this, doesn't really help. My bad...