GUARD YOUR TONGUE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12

“Remind them to...speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle.” Tit 3:1-2 NKJV

Ruth Bell Graham told a humorous story about her daughters, Anne and Bunny. When Ruth ran to the kitchen to investigate some loud cries, she found three-year-old Bunny holding her hand to her cheek, looking very disapprovingly at her sister. “Mommy,” explained five-year-old Anne, “I’m teaching Bunny the Bible. I’m slapping her on one cheek and teaching her to turn the other cheek so I can slap it too.” When we are wronged, our first response is more likely to fight back than to turn the other cheek. But as we become more spiritually mature, we realize this is counterproductive. Missionary E. Stanley Jones was being publicly slandered by someone he had once helped. Jones’s first response was to write his accuser a letter he relates was “the kind of reply you are proud of the first five minutes, the second five minutes you’re not too certain, and the third five minutes you know you’re wrong.” Jones knew his comments would win the argument but lose the person. “The Christian,” he said, “is not in the business of winning arguments, but of winning people,” and he tore up the letter. A few weeks later without having said a word Jones received a letter of apology from the one who had turned on him. David wrote: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps141:3 NKJV). Solomon wrote: “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles” (Pr 21:23 NKJV). Peter writes: “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil” (1Pe 3:10 NKJV).