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 I didn't know it was loaded!I heard about a man recently who had quite a shock. He was cleaning his shotgun in his house when all the sudden the gun went off. I wonder what piece of furniture or wall died that day…thankfully that’s all that was hurt. Now I’ve grown up with guns and I don’t have any idea how a person can clean a gun and not know if it is loaded or not. I often think the person was playing with the gun and when the police show up just say they were cleaning it. Be that as it may it made me think of something else that goes off far too often—it’s my mouth. When I pick up a gun I assume it is loaded and treat it as it is—a dangerous weapon. I’m careful where I point it and how I use it. It seems like I should treat my tongue and the words of my mouth the same way. How easy I forget that words can be deadly, can hit innocent bystanders and cause great harm. And those words escape not only my mouth but now also on Facebook, in email and text messages, and on and on. My words can also do good. What if my words were always full of grace, full of God’s forgiveness and mercy? What if what I said about others was flavored by that forgiveness and mercy Jesus has given me? What if wisdom always walked with the words of my mouth?
“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Proverbs 12:18
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