LITTLE PITCHERS HAVE BIG EARS
April 11, 2022
Prayer: Please, O Lord, guard my thinking and my speaking today. May I bring praise and glory to Your name. Amen
Scriptures: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Ps.141:3 NIV
The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint. Prov. 17: 27 NIV
“Miss MacArthur! I remember you! You were my teacher in 5th grade and I’ll never forget the things you taught us. Do you realize that every time I see a bobby pin, I think of you? Do you know that one day in your class I was opening a bobby pin with my teeth and you said that I could damage my teeth that way?”
Miss MacArthur hadn’t taught in 13 years, having retired after more than 30 years of teaching. This student remembered her after 47 years! I’m sure she chuckled gratefully over the innocuous warning she gave that day long ago. It seems incredulous what students keep in their memories; those off-hand comments, the warnings, the compliments. How careful we need to be.
How can we possibly prevent our students from hearing things that will lead them astray, or give them wrong impressions, or lead them to think of themselves in negative ways? What will ensure that the words we say every moment of every day are constructive, not destructive? Certainly it appears to be an impossible feat, and in our own strength it is.
BUT GOD. God alone can bind our tongues to say the right words at all times. How easy, without God, to let our tongues slip, even unknowingly. Breathe the simple prayer of David, the psalmist. Certainly our God wants to answer that prayer and help us to maintain careful speech for His glory.
Copyright Shirley Wilson. To connect with the author, email [email protected]
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