Last Sunday I preached a sermon on James 3 on Taming the Tongue. I did a children's moment for the kids where they held their tongue and receited a Bible Verse "Keep Your Tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies." Later I preached on watching what you say, gossip, lying, saying hurtful things.
This is the second time I have preached this sermon and I like the first time, I got feeback. I found it interesting that several parents came up to me and said this is what their kids needed to hear. While that is true, I wonder if either we as adults don't recognize where we need to watch our mouths or we just are so careful not to hurt anyone that we have learned to say things in private or that it is true, our kids really need to watch the things they say. We are in a in-your-face, air-your-feelings culture and too often we just let loose without thinking through what we say.
I read our Bishop's Column yesterday in the Call (Holston Conference Newspaper) where he quoted Bill Easom:
I’m convinced that one of the main sins of the established church is that we have taught ourselves to be nice instead of being Christian. In spite of aspiring to be a disciple of Jesus, we teach that the essence of Christianity is to be nice. Where do we get such a notion? Certainly not from the actions of Jesus. Jesus taught us that being nice has nothing to do with being Christian. Being nice is often nothing more than a lack of compassion for people.
Click here for full article.
So, our challenge is knowing when and what to speak. For some of us that means speaking less. For others it means speaking up more. We need wisdom to know the difference (James 3:13-17).
3 comments:
Hi Scott! No, you don't know me; I found your blog because I was avoiding work this morning and searched for bloggers in Kentucky.
I just wanted to thank you for this thoughtful post, seeing as how I've been thinking a lot lately about the dilemma that often presents itself between being honest and being nice. The thing is, both are important. If we're not honest - or if we're simply silent - others might not understand that their actions create harm. But if we're not nice, our speech might cause more harm than it alleviates. If our admonitions against the harmful actions of others hurt them, their response is likely to be entrenchment in those very harmful actions that we hope to bring to their attention through our speech. As with all our actions, it is important to be mindful of the consequences wrought by our verbal actions, both for ourselves and for others.
Thank you for giving me a few more things to ponder!
Dear Thumper,
I agree with you. Knowing the balance is important. As you know, the way things are said makes all the difference. Without relationship with a person, it comes across cold and hard.
Once I was with a youth group that confronted each other during a mission trip week of things that bothered them. As you can imagine, it was quite a week. After about a day, I told everyone to not do it anymore, instead to bear with each other.
Glad you responded.
Scott,
It's interesting to me that it's easier to take a vow of silence than it is to speak with wisdom. Taming the tongue is indeed tough. Saying just the right amount--and the right things--is more difficult than shutting up altogether.
Great to see you yesterday!
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