{"id":2759,"date":"2015-04-26T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2015-04-09T20:53:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T01:53:13","slug":"choose-to-think-before-you-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=2759","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Think before You Speak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Think<\/a>Last time we discussed the importance of listening to others. The old adage about God giving us one mouth and two ears so we should probably be listening more than talking still rings true. However there are times when we get the opportunity to speak. When those times come, the Bible exhorts us to choose our words carefully and use them wisely. Therefore we should think before we speak. (James 1:19)<\/p>\n

Words have a life of their own. This is why we must be cautious in what we say to others. Even if we apologize for making careless statements to or about others that does not erase what was said. We cannot strike it from the record or take it back, because people will remember it even if we say we didn\u2019t really mean it. Spoken words don\u2019t just dissolve into the air. They live on and damage is done.<\/p>\n

No wonder the Bible speaks so much about taming our tongues. (James 3) Both David and James use the metaphor of bridling our tongues. (Psalms 39:1; James 1:26) A bridle is a leather harness and bit placed in a horse\u2019s mouth to control it. That might seem a bit drastic to us, but in all honesty some of us could benefit from a built in muzzle that clamps over our mouths when we are about to say something we are going to regret.<\/p>\n

The biblical admonitions about guarding our tongues are plentiful\u2026<\/p>\n