The power and consiquences of your words

With an increasing availability to think, reflect, and spend time with God (and my cats who can't speak), I've found myself paying attention to words lately. Words I think, and words I say. Listening to the words of others. Words meant to make someone feel better about themselves. And words meant to make others feel better. Words meant to cause pain. Words said with little consideration for their consequences. Not just for today, but into eternity. Are the words coming from your mouth glorifying to God, or are they careless and hurtful despite your better judgment?

Here is what I discovered in scripture recently regarding the power your tongue has to either build up or break down others, from the New Testament book of James. Regardless of whether the person you speak of is present, or not.

When You Open Your Mouth

3 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. 4 A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.

5 A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything-or destroy it! 6 A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

7 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, 8 but you can't tame a tongue-it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. 9 With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image.

10 Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! 11 A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it?12 Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

James 3: 3-10 (The Message)