Time To Re-train the Tongue

The tongue can be seen as a foul member of the human body. One minute it’s saying loving and caring things, then the next minute it could strike like a panther and cut deep. So how do we 'train' our tongue to speak that which is good and not bad?

A simple definition of what it means to train is: ‘to develop or form the habits, thoughts, or behaviour of (a child or other person) by discipline and instruction.’ If you ask anyone who trains, or even if you train yourself, you’ll know that it’s not always easy. You start out all fired up and raring to go, it’s fresh, new.

Then you go through the awkward middle stage. Sometimes the excitement has worn off and perseverance has to kick in. You have to push harder in order to achieve a good end result. And then the end stage, of course, is where you physically see a breakthrough. But, the cycle continues, and there needs to be consistency, otherwise it is easy to fall back into bad habits. 

It’s also a mental act as well as a physical act. Work is required in all areas. Sometimes you might hit a few road blocks, and come to a standstill. Whereas, at other times you might fall, but it’s knowing how to continue to progress is the key. It is this that we need to apply to our tongue… the power to continue, aka PERSEVERE to make sure we are speaking positively over negatively. There's a famous saying: 'If you can't say anything nice, its best you don't say anything'

James 1:26, James 3:2-10 (the book of James in the Bible), speaks about how we must learn to control our tongue. What we say really does need to be thought about and controlled more. No, not in a dictatorship way, but in wisdom so its effectively used in a healthy way with good results.

Proverbs 21:23 and Ephesians 4:29 (also from the Bible), speak about the mouth getting you into trouble if not knowing how to use it, and using it for building others up rather than tearing others down whilst knowing where to fit speech so it gives grace (blessing, mercy undeserved).

We’ve probably all been there to be honest. One of them ones when we’ve spoken out of turn, the wrong emotions, etc, and the affects have been less than satisfying for yourself and those involved. Our mouths can be the beginning and ending for us sometimes.

Proverbs 18:21 ‘The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit’.

Just being conscious of what we say, may seem minor, but is major when we think about it. Life and death, life and death… quite the difference! It’s like the saying: ‘you are what you eat.’ If you visually think about this, not all images are pretty are they? So, imagine applying this to the words that come out of your mouth. What image do you get?

This is why we need to re-train (train again, do again), our tongue. We need to think about what we say before we say anything, the fruitfulness of our lips. 
But also like the physical act of training, it does not always happen over-night.  It takes time, and whilst taking that time to really direct your tongue you will realise that your investment in speaking more positively to yourself and others will make such a huge difference. Why not try it and see for yourself.

#SpeakLife

By: Stacey Spencer - BFM Writer

(Edited by Faith Dore)

Image 1 - http://myabcsoup.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/controlling-word-vomit.html
Image 2 - http://karlnova.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/shhh.html
Image 3 - http://godcreatedlaughter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/be-careful-what-you-say.html

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