The Wildest Animal
I watched a documentary the other night with my four-year-old son that showed the most dangerous creatures on the planet, their ferocious hunting instincts, and their amazing ability to carefully trap their prey manipulating them until their teeth sank deeply into their flesh and fell victim to their predator. It was quite fascinating, but after fifteen minutes the blood and guts got to be too much for my preschooler and he begged to turn it off.
This unforgettable moment of watching carnivores track, manipulate and kill their dinner came back to my mind as I was listening to the audio narration of the book of James yesterday. James talks about the wildest animal that cannot be tamed on earth and it's called the tongue. Two thousand years ago, he told the first Christians, "Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way" (James 3:2 NLT).
The tongue is powerful. It may be a more hidden, smaller part of our bodies, but as I have found throughout my life, it can cause the most damage or bring the most healing to lives around me and to my soul.
Growing up we were probably told, "If you can't say nothing nice, don't say anything at all". But, do we actually practice this in our lives today with social media, text messages, emails and all the instant ways we communicate with people? Do we censor ourselves before pressing the 'send' button?
I'll admit, this is an area that I always struggle with because I'm a talker and I love to say encouraging things to people, but sometimes my good intentions are overshadowed by my quick tongue and I make an absolute fool of myself! Even more so, I have found that my tongue also does the most damage when it comes to self-talk. Yes, people can criticize me or ignore me and it may hurt my feelings for a little while, but my self-esteem is devoured most often by my own ravenous tongue.
Like the animals of the wild, my tongue can look or sound beautiful one moment and then devour the same person the minute after. James goes further to say, "People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth" (James 3:7-10 NLT).
So, if the tongue is the wildest animal to ever exist, how do we tame it? One answer: God's Spirit. The more we pray, fill our hearts with the knowledge of the Bible and sing praises to God on a daily basis, the more our tongues will come under the loving control of God and not ourselves. Today, let's choose to tame this terrible beast and see the new life that will begin to grow in ourselves and our lives.
