AJ and a LATTE

The age-old dilemma…to speak or to keep her shut.  My mouth. Bless her heart.  She is such a complex creature.  She has the power to give life or to cause trauma.  According to Proverbs 18: 21, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”  This has been a struggle my whole life.  Psalm 34:13 “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”  Wow!  God has a lot to say about the power of the tongue.  Scientifically the tongue is the most flexible muscle in the body composed of eight different muscles.  

So, God took the time to put over 100 references to the power of the tongue in the Bible.  He took the time to combine eight muscles intricately to give the tongue the utmost flexibility.  It helps one talk, swallow, speak and breathe.  It is a powerful little muscle.  It is equated in many ways to an elephant’s trunk as far as its capabilities and usefulness.  

With every good and perfect thing there is an equal opposite.  Good ole Newton with his Third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  That is true in more than just the exertion of force. When the tongue acts, there is ALWAYS an equal reaction of some sort.  That action may or may not be opposite, but the equal reaction is there.  

Unfortunately when our human falls out and we speak negatively, that will breed more negativity.  Negative statements elicit negative comments.

There is a point to my rambling.  I find that when someone has negative to say, my human-ness wants to meet negative for negative.  But I don’t think that is what God wants from me.  Yes, I can have a dissenting opinion, but I don’t think He wants me to meet every negative comment with an equal reaction.  Perhaps He wants me to channel my inner-Newton and find an equal OPPOSITE  reaction.  Perhaps He wants me to defy the laws of physics and not react at all!  I have found myself in a profoundly difficult situation lately when someone has been extremely negative behind my back.  My sweet girl (my mouth) and my human want to lash out with equal force and meet/beat that negativity.  She wants to give the offender “what for” and demand either retribution or at the very least some form of humble responsibility.  She wants to meet negative with negative.  She wants to cut like a knife the way she was cut and wounded.  My human wants justice!  

God’s justice is tainted…with grace.  He wants me to emulate Him.  He wants my sweet girl to keep her trap shut and let Him do His job.  My human doesn’t always like that.  She wants there to be “fairness.”  But my God promised faithful, not fair.  Proverbs 21:23 “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”  He addressed this part of me before there was ever a ME!  Isn’t He good?  

So, my girl and my human will try hard to keep the high road.  We’ll flood ourselves with the Word and remember that other people have their own tongues and are just as human.  It is so hard to not lash back.  It is so hard not to seek retribution, but in the end, it is about what He is grooming me to be–a better version of myself, the me He created in His image.  

Until next time…