There is an FYP student in my lab who likes to tease me by talking rubbish (telling something true with such a convincing way that people think you are telling the truth). To tell you the truth, sometimes I find his rubbish talk entertaining (though I want to whack him afterwards =P).
Anyway, shortly after one of that episode, I walked through the university’s canteen and was interested on one of the banners displayed there. It shows two persons with their mouths wide open. One with junks coming out of the mouth. The other one with crystal clear words coming out of the mouth. The contrast is quite obvious : one talks rubbish, the other talks meaningful things.
Turned out the banner was about the Toastmasters Club in NTU.
Although it was a clever piece of advertisement for public speaking, I guess it slapped me right on the cheek because I was reminded again about the importance of guarding our tongue. It is not a problem of talking rubbish. Nor is this a problem about making yourself understood.
The problem with guarding our tongue is always the struggle we have when we are supposed to say things that glorifies Him. There is only 2 choice when we let words out of our mouth : to glorifiy God, or not.
From the small things we say to our friends (hi, good morning, good luck, etc), to the big things we say to others (encouragements, consolations, etc), to even insult and downright cursing, we are given these 2 choices everyday : glorify Him. Or not.
From the morning until night, we speak hundreds of words. How many of those actually bring people to see God reflected in our lives? Will they see Jesus in me? Will they see Jesus in you?
It is not always easy to guard our tongue. Because talking needs such an unconscious effort from us, we usually take talking for granted. The words that are coming out of our mouths are reckless words, with wrong things said at the wrong moments. Unfortunately, we can not take back the words we have said. Like feathers blown in the wind, the words we have said are forever lost. The deep cut we have caused for others will be kept on the deep recesses of people’s hearts. To count the possibilities of saying the right things has the same probabilities of finding a needle in the hey stack.
But should we despair? We know the answer is always in God’s hands. The work of Holy Spirit in our lives transform our lives to a new life that will always long to glorify God. Not to say that we will not fail, but to know that we have the chance of being successful in choosing the right choice to glorify Him with our words ^.~
Let us long always to glorify God in every circumstance. And even more to do so with our words =)
