The Tongue

One of the things I would like to do with this blog is not just talk about what is going on in my life but to make people think instead. Being a woman, one of the things I have had to endure in church and in the secular world is how other women use their tongues. We as believers have come to accept the gossip and tongue lashing that we overhear or are told directly without admonishing the individual doing the gossiping or tongue lashing. Gossip wrapped in prayer requests or fained concern cannot hide from God the true intent, to pass on information because we believe others should know what we know. James 3:1-12 goes into great detail about the tongue and more importantly how teachers and the mature behave with their tongues. In verse 3 James says, "Behold we put bits in the mouths of horses for them to obey us; and we turn about their whole body." James tells us that a teacher has to have this ability so that they control what they say and when they say things to others. A mature believer thinks before he or she speaks and never chases rabbits so that they can be carried off unknowingly in dangerous heretical territory. A teacher also must understand the importance and preciousness of trust. If a believer tells a friend's or even an acquaintance's business to someone else they show by their action that trust is cheap to them and of no value. Having lost that trust, close relationships break down. Over the years I have been told secrets and have been entrusted with them to keep and nurture a bond that a gossip cannot enjoy. I have however been told information about others and passed it on myself only to regret it as soon as I allowed that information to pass my lips. As I grew up I learned to be bold enough to stop the individual, ignore them or change the subject. Second hand information is often wrong or misleading and can create horrible stories that are not true. Another lesson about gossip is how people manipulate others to get information out of them. They tell what they know in hopes that the other person will "fill in the blanks". This kind of self importance and selfishness leads to the destruction of reputations, bad feelings between friends and rifts in the body. Men are not innocent of these charges either but are not as interested as women. If women don't teach that it's wrong it will be passed on to future generations with terrible consequences.