Where Does Our Tongue Write by Christina Bywater

It has been on my mind that Psalm 45:1 speaks of our tongue being the pen of a ready writer. 

We write on paper with a pen, but what do we write on with our tongues? How lasting are those words? Are  they constructive? Or destructive? Are they good, or evil? Comforting, or unnerving? Faith filled, or fear full?

Proverbs say that Death and Life are in the power of the tongue; and Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  That is a scary thought! We can build up, or we can tear down, we can encourage or discourage, enthuse, or deflate, just by the words we allow to leave our mouths. 

 

The challenge that I have with my writing is that, if a reader reads my outpourings out loud, are the words they utter going to have a positive or negative effect? Will they work for good, or evil?

 

Worse still is the thought that, for every idle word, I will be judged. Jesus was clear about that too.  What is an idle word? One that neither builds up the body of Christ nor tears down His enemy’s strongholds? 

 

I often recall the English Nursery Rhyme about the wise old owl, so short a text, yet so full of wisdom, which runs alongside the adage that goes something like “We have two ears and one mouth for a reason! We should listen twice as much as we speak!” 

"A wise old owl lived in an oak.

The more he heard, the less he spoke.

The less he spoke, the more he heard.

Wasn’t he a wise old bird?”

We are called to be a light; to reflect Jesus to the world – that lonely, lost, hopeless mass of people who are looking to us, as Jesus followers, to build them up, give them hope, and show them a better way.  Let us hope and pray that all our writings, words engraved forever on a page or heart, when weighed in the balance, are not found wanting.