A spring of mixed waters

I had arrived earlier at the office for a meeting with my teammates. As we waited for others to arrive, the manager, Tina, quickly checked her emails.

“Wow, God bless you, Randy! You are such an excellent person to work with,” she exclaimed.

She explained that Randy had helped her to review the budgeting report for our department, so, it was OK for us to send it to the head office now.

A few minutes later, Tina received another email. “Nonsense, get off! You annoy me,” Tina shouted at the laptop in front of her.

She had received an email from an accountant who asked her to send all the receipts for the end-of-year party event before she could reimburse Tina’s expense claims.

I sat there, wondering about the power of the tongue.

“But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh” (James 3:8-12). 

As Christians, we are exhorted to keep our tongue from evil.

Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Psalm 34:13.

Instead of using our tongue for evil, we are to use our tongue to praise God and to speak of the righteousness and goodness of God; as well as bless the people around us.

And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness, and of Your praise all the day long. Psalm 35:28.

There is a sad ending for a tongue that is used for immoral, improper, and evil things.

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut out (Proverbs 10:31).

We can’t tame our tongue by ourselves, but we can rely on the grace of God to use our tongue in ways that will please Him and bring glory to His name. Through the help of God, our tongue can become a tree of life, bringing healing and comfort to those around us.

A wholesome (healing) tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit (Proverbs 15:4).

Like Tina, if we discover that we are struggling to ‘keep our tongue from evil,’ we can join the Psalmist in praying, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3.