Thoughts on James 3:3-6

³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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. 

Many in the world today train their bodies for certain athletic activities. We begin with stretching and warm up activities. We lift weights to build the muscles in our bodies. We run or jog to enhance stamina and endurance. We  may even join a gym to have access to a personal trainer to establish a routine. Then there are the things we do to strengthen our minds. We send our kids to school so their minds can be trained in how to learn the basics. In the Army we train for battle. We train these skills until a Soldier can react without even thinking about it.

Why is it then that we have such a hard time training our tongue? We use this muscle in our mouth on a daily basis more than any other muscle in our body. They say that women on average speak about twenty thousand words a day, while men speak about ten thousand words a day. It is the one muscle however, that we cannot tame. It is odd that today it is almost the norm to use flow words to communicate to our friends.

As a chaplain in the Army I have to remind leaders and soldiers that their language shows their professionalism. At times I believe that the only way to tame this small muscle is to cut it out, but that is not something that anyone of us would do. How then do we tame this muscle that causes so much destruction?

As the scripture above says to place a bit into a horses mouth to turn it, we need to place a spiritual bit into our mouth to clog its ability to speak words of disrespect. Second we need to place a rudder onto our tongue so that it speaks righteous words of encouragement. Last we need to purify our tongue with holy words. Start today training your tongue to speak only words of encouragement.

Let your Prayer be: Lord you are the one who controls the universe. Lord you are the only one who speaks words of comfort. Lord you are the God of love. Use my tongue to speak words of encouragement. Use my tongue to speak words of hope. Use my tongue to tell the story of salvation. Strengthen my tongue to speak words of righteousness. Train my tongue to praise You. Amen...