HELP
“Grandma, why did you do that?” Embarrassment sent heat to my face and punched me in the pit of my stomach.
“What?” she responded. “I just wanted to look at the baby.”
“You can’t just stop a stranger in a store to look at her baby and then tell her that her baby looks interesting!” I tried to reason with her.
“Well, I was just being honest,” she declared “You know newborns are ugly and I didn’t want to be rude!”
“But grandma, you need to be careful with what you say,” I pleaded. “Remember yesterday?”
“How was I supposed to know that the gentleman at the restaurant was having lunch with his new wife and not his daughter?”
I wanted to dig a hole and bury my head in it but there was no sand at the mall.
James 1:19 says Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
Grandma was a great listener and hardly ever got mad.
However, she was quick to speak sometimes.
She strongly believed that being honest was “a right that came with old age” and boy did she practice it.
Most people laughed at her harmless indiscretions, and she chuckled her embarrassment away.
However, her family members concluded that she had lost her “internal filter” in her silver years.
The tongue is a small but very powerful tool that can be used to edify or destroy.
Fortunately, we don’t have to go through life wondering if we’ll say something that will get us in trouble.
The Lord provided a filter for us, His Holy Spirit, Who can guide us in all truth and righteousness.
Let’s pray like David did:
Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Ps.141:3 NIV
We can pray for HELP and ask ourselves these questions before we speak:
- H- Is it honorable and just?
- E– Is it edifying and encouraging?
- L– Is it lovely or lovable?
- P– Pure or worthy of praise?
If the answer is NO to any of these questions, that means we don’t have anything good to say, so it’s best not say anything at all.
Sometimes habits are hard to break, especially negative ones.
But with God’s help, we can become fountains of encouragement, love, and edification.
How about giving it a try?
