Not Edifying? Don't Say It

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - If Your Body Matched Your Soul

John wrote to Gaius in his third letter: "I pray you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." I'm not sure I'd want anyone to pray that my body would do as well as my soul. How about you? Might be terribly revealing and maybe a little embarrassing.

If your bodily condition reflected your spiritual condition, would you have some mouth problems? Maybe your tongue would be covered with canker sores, or you'd have bad breath, or you'd have foot-in-mouth disease!

The Bible has so much to say about the condition of our tongue–the words we speak and what comes out of our mouths. Ephesians 4:29 would be enough. Paul wrote: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Friends, if we practiced that verse, we would cure our mouth problems right away.

Let's make that verse a daily prayer: "Lord, today please help me to keep any unwholesome talk from coming out of my mouth; may everything I say today build someone up and benefit those who listen." In fact, I challenge you to make a commitment that you will get through one entire day without any mouth problems.

You could print this verse on some cards, and put those cards everywhere–on the refrigerator, on your desk, on the car dashboard–and flood your mind with these instructions on curing your mouth problems.

It would undoubtedly mean you and I would have to stop in the middle of a lot of sentences and change the course of a conversation. It would mean walking away from some conversations, saying positives things when others are negative, refusing to gripe about the boss or the lazy co-worker or the weather, declaring a moratorium on gossip. It would mean complimenting people sincerely and praising someone for a job well done.

I remember being with a group of Christians once when one woman in the group started to tell us something, and then she stopped. "No," she said, "that's not edifying; I'm not going to say it." And just like that, she had caught herself ahead of time and not allowed her mouth to utter something unwholesome. I thought, "What if more of us would just check our mouths out and keep the unwholesome, discouraging, gossipy, unnecessary words from coming out of our mouths! What a difference it would make in our relationships and in our testimony.

The Psalmist prayed, Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3). What a good prayer for all of us to cure all our mouth problems. I encourage you to add that to your daily prayer list.