Watch Yo' Mouth!

For the second year in a row, I'm reading through the entire Bible in 365 days. I'm happy to be on this journey once again. However, this year I'm doing it just a bit differently. Each day before I begin my reading I ask God to show me what He wants me to learn, chew on, discover, etc. On Thursdays, I also pray that God would show me what He wants me to blog about since He's the one who told me I had to do this anyway. He always tells me what He wants in that week's blog post. Today, God showed me a verse He wanted me to address.

I believe many of us have become complacent and think that the words that come out of our mouth isn't important. I will admit that I sometimes become frustrated or angry and say things I shouldn't. I've been working very hard on that. I almost have it conquered. So, what I'm about to say isn't meant to point a finger at anyone because when I point a finger at you, I'm pointing 4 more back at me. There have been many times that I've asked God to put His arm around me shoulder and hand over my mouth.

I remember many things from my days as a summer church camp director. The one thing I remember the most is a video of Florence Littauer giving a mini-sermon on Ephesians 4:29. I love The Message version of this verse that I memorized in the New International Version. The Message says, "Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift." Florence talks about our words being like silver boxes neatly tied with a bow that we give to everyone we speak to. We would show this video to our staff of counselors and tell them to think of everything they said to their campers during the next week and make sure they were giving silver boxes rather than paper bags.

Today, God gave me an even more specific verse to address. Exodus 20:7 (again in The Message) says, "No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name." Translation: Quit saying you're a Christian and then saying, "Oh my God!" all the time. You're breaking one of the 10 Commandments. These weren't written in sand to be erased and forgotten. They were carved in stone to be remembered from generation to generation. Why have so many of us forgotten??

From this day forward, I will NOT be complacent about this. I don't care how hard I stub my toe or how hard I hit the corner of the door when I turn too quickly. I will not say things I shouldn't! No matter how angry I get at the slow driver in front of me or the long lines at Walmart. I won't say nasty words. Will you join me in this commitment to uphold each and every Commandment God gave Moses on top of the mountain or will you continue to let yourself believe that they no longer apply because they're so old? The choice is yours. Your future depends on your decision.