Glorifying God in your speech

Do you remember the song “oh be careful little eyes what you see?”  Do you remember when it says “Oh be careful little lips what you speak?”  I went to the ACBC conference this past week that was taught by Caroline Newheiser.  She was talking about gossip.  It showed me how important it is to realize that the words you speak can be used to edify another person or tear them down.  People tend to want to hear gossip and spread gossip.  When there is something bad going on people tend to want to know what it is.   One thing I learned from Caroline is that when we speak something to somebody we need to consider if the person we are telling needs to hear what we have to say or if they are part of the problem or solution.  If they are not then we shouldn’t be telling them.  One thing she said her husband said is we can always say more but we cannot say less.   We shouldn’t say something about people if they are not there and we definitely shouldn’t say anything that we would not say to the person.  I know I can be guilty about this also.  I’ll be irritated with somebody and I might tell my friend or somebody so and so did this and it made me so mad.  But that’s gossiping right? I didn’t really realize that until I heard her talking about it.  Instead of going to everybody else you should go to the person that you are having a problem with.  We should not be asking other people about situations or about people also.  For example we shouldn’t be like “Hey did you hear about Jane? What happened to her?”  If we do this we can be causing others to gossip.  Another thing I learned from her is that because gossip is a sin we need to be putting it to death.  It is important that we are constantly dying to sin and living to Christ.

1 Peter 3:10 “The one who desires life, to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.”

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will grace to those who hear.”

Let’s pray Ohana that God would give us boldness to speak whatever it is that He wants us to say and that He would give us restraint from speaking anything that isn’t necessary or edifying or that would tear others down.  Thankful to be living life with y’all!