Way 1: Tongue Control

The first Way from the list of twenty is, "Think before you speak , instead of giving everyone a piece of your mind." Boy, this is valuable. If you're going around giving everyone a piece of your mind, people probably (hate is a strong word, so I'll say it nicely) aren't pleased with your presence. In her book, "The Secret Power of speaking God's Word," Joyce Meyer sums up Proverbs 16:23 as, "Think before you speak because the mind of the wise instructs his mouth. "Wow!" This is simply stated, but it packs a lot of punch. The wise don't allow their mouths to run wild or engage in idle conversation. Wise individuals don't open their mouths and speak haphazardly. They don't allow any old junk to pop out of their mouths. No, the wise mind instructs his mouth on what to speak. The wise mind orders his speech; therefore, the wise person thinks before he speaks because he instructs his mouth on exactly what to say. Have you ever said something that you didn't mean to say? It kind of popped out before you knew it. I used to do that quite a bit. I did it because, I failed to think before I spoke. We should allow our minds to instruct our mouths, before we open them to speak. This actually took work for me. I had to actually monitor what I said. I had to learn that I couldn't say everything that I thought. I had to actually think about what I said before I said it. Psalm 141:3 reads, "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." Not only did I pray for the Lord to do this, I confessed that I "guarded the doors of my mouth." Only then, did my speech pattern change. I stopped complaining, grumbling, and gossipping. I stopped giving everyone a piece of my mind. I learned to speak constructively, even when I didn't agree with what was being said. I learned that just because I didn't agree with a person, I didn't have to give them a verbal lashing. This didn't happen instantaneously, because all I knew to do was go off if things didn't go my way, or if I felt like I was being attacked. It did take work on my part. I can remember one time when I was being trained to "guard the doors of my mouth" and my husband said something that I didn't find too pleasing. Boy, I was about to give him a piece of my mind, but when I opened my mouth to speak, absolutely nothing came out. The Lord held my tongue, because he knew I had let my guard down and that I wasn't standing on either of these two scriptures. If you would like to make a change in this area, pray these two scriptures. Tell the Lord you want to think before you speak. Ask him to help you do this and to do Psalm 141:3. Try confessing both scriptures out loud daily. Be mindful of your conversation. With the Lord's help you can control what you speak. Why not start now?