"Oh be careful little tongue what you say....."

One of my favorite Bible school songs growing up!! I will admit though, at that age, I wasn't truly understanding the meaning behind many of those songs that we sang at Bible school. It's fun to remember the hand motions that go along with this song though :)

The sermon this past Sunday was about how words that speak from your tongue can affect someone much more than you might ever realize, or even intend. We must be very careful, as Christians, as to what we say, and that we don't gossip. We must also make sure that "the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to God."

I am trying to do better in thinking more before I let words come out of my mouth. I'm also trying to give people praise when they deserve it. I will often think praise of others in my mind, but I might not voice it. For example, this morning in swim, I gave a compliment to our new swim coach. I can tell he has been working hard and researching ways to help us become better swimmers. I will admit, at first impression, I thought to myself, "Oh no, who is this guy and why is he being so tough on us?" He is very intense, but he is also very motivating and gives us praise while on deck of the pool, which I am sure is VERY difficult at 5:45 am :)
If I put myself in his shoes, I can be willing to bet that he needs reassurance from his "students" that he is liked and doing a good job.

After I got out of the pool this morning, I was thinking to myself how I enjoyed the drills we did (sighting drills which we never have done before) I decided, "Why am I thinking this, but not voicing it to him? He needs to hear it!!!" So, I told him how I enjoyed swim and how I think this helped us as triathletes. I could see in his face, just in that simple 1 minute statement, how much it meant to him to get a compliment of that sort. That's all it took. I bet it made his morning brighter ;)

We should all remember this...............let's use our tongues to praise more and gossip less. It's a challenge, but not only will it allow us to please God, it just might make someone else's day at the same time ;)