me and my big mouth

In church today, Pastor Ed said some things in his sermon that were pretty convicting for me... The first thing he mentioned was complaining - uh oh! He talked about how in Bob Jones University, there is a no-complaining policy where students were not allowed to complain about anything on campus - so if the food they ate was bad, or if they didn't like the way something was run, they were not to complain about it and instead be thankful. This part of the sermon really convicted me because I reckon I tend to whinge and complain quite a bit. So that will be quite a challenge for me to really be thankful more instead of complaining. God will definitely have to intervene on that one - He has a lot of work to do!!

The other part that convicted me was when Pastor Ed said that we ought to be watchful of the things we say... He said, when we are about to open our mouth to say something, we should ask ourselves 4 questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it kind?
3. Is it necessary? and
4. Is it glorifying to God?

After a brief self-analysis, I have to say that if I was to truly put that into practice, I would not have much to say. Don't get me wrong, I'm not like a totally whingey, mean and gossipy person (at least I honestly don't think I am), but I do find that a lot of the things I say are not necessarily glorifying to God and not necessarily necessary either. Even when we were in the car later, I remember I had a conversation with Adrian (my bro) which went something like this:

Rowena: saying something (I can't remember what)
Adrian: was that necessary?'
Rowena: shut up Adrian
Adrian: was that kind?
Rowena: another poorly thought out comment - probably slightly derogatory to Adrian
Adrian: was that true? and was that glorifying to God

So I had essentially failed to put any of that message into practice and had failed the test immediately after being taught! Once again, God has heaps of work left on me to do!

Elisabeth Elliot once said:

When men talk too much, sin is never far away; common sense holds its tongue

Some other wise words from a certain bunny named Thumper to a certain fawn named Bambi come to mind:

If you can't say nothin nice, don't say nothin at all

It is definitely a difficult thing to tame the tongue. In the Bible, James says it best when he describes the tongue as something along the lines of an 'unruly evil full of deadly poison'. There is a sermon by Greg Mazak that deals with the topic of the tongue very well, and in that sermon, he says that what we say is a reflection of what is in our hearts. So really, when I look at myself and see the types of things that I say, I can see that I seriously need to fix up some things in my heart as a starting point.

I really admire those brothers and sisters in church and even non-Christians who are so good with what they say - these are the types of people who would never say a bad thing about anyone else and who seem to always see things positively. Of course, some of these people may be either naive or fake, and may be purposefully putting up a goody-goody front for show. But those who are truly genuine are so awesome - and I have so much respect for them (there are some people like that - believe it or not!). Of course we all slip up once in a while, but the important thing is that we keep trying. If God is never going to give up on us, then we should definitely keep trying to help Him help us!

Better leave it there... I'm afraid if I say anything more it will be unecessary!