When Guarding Your Tongue Changes Your Life
When you look at your life and evaluate the things that need to change, what have you found is regularly at the top of your list? For me, my list felt similar each time I evaluated it, until recently. My first few "need tending to" areas were consistently the same: spending more time with the Lord, making my husband and I's growth a priority, and having a gentle spirit.
These are wonderful things to work on, however, I've always felt stuck! And it showed, given that these same 3 areas made the list every. single. time. While spending time with the Lord one morning, I landed on Proverbs 8, which is all about wisdom. As I made my way through the chapter verse 13 nearly jumped off the page and seared itself into my mind. "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate."
Talk about conviction. It was an immediate onset of the Holy Spirit revealing to my heart that this is the reason my list is always the same. I realized if I'm called to love what God loves and hate what God hates then my mouth has to change. Perverse speech has no business flying out and being spoken as if there are no consequences. I'm not just talking about "cussing". I'm talking about all. the. things. we. say. Because here's what I know to be true (we also see this in Matthew 15:18), my mouth is a crystal clear reflection of my walk with the Lord.
As I take an inventory, I see a consistent thread:
During the seasons when my tongue has been most guarded, I was walking very closely with the Lord.
During the seasons when my marriage has been a top priority, my words were like honey and I was staying in step with the Spirit.
During the seasons when my spirit has been most gentle, my tongue was tamed by graciousness.
I wish I'd understood earlier that guarding my tongue, out of love for the Lord, would change my life. It makes perfect sense. But for years, it felt like a far-off...not very important change that needed to be made.
Let this be a testimony to you, guarding your tongue will change many of the things on your list that probably looks similar year after year. I promise you'll see love and graciousness spilling out from the overflow of you choosing Jesus all. day. long.