Flashback (cue rewinding tape sound). Here I am, 12 years old going on 18 (or so I thought), watching my favorite after school show, “Saved by the Bell.” My brother, all of 8 at the time, comes barreling into the living room with some toy in hand, jabbering and yelling as he played. The noises he made were cluttering the audio on my favorite show, so I promptly turned around to look him and out of my mouth comes the phrase, “Shut up, Jef!”
My mom, who has been standing in the kitchen all along quickly replies, without missing a beat, “Out of the mouth the heart speaks.” She then of course told me to apologize to my brother and turn off the TV.
“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
Luke 6:45 NLT
This is a scripture from the Bible that, as I’m sure you can imagine, I was told often by my mom. My heart was speaking through the sharp tongue I had. I don’t seem to have grown out of that either.
In that moment, when my show was more important to me than my little brother, I chose frustration rather than joy. I chose to let negativity consume me.
I’ll venture to say that most of us have experienced many moments like that in our lives. The best way to combat a negative, complaining attitude is to control what we allow our minds to focus on. The key to that is taking every thought captive.
As Christians, the world is watching to see if what we say we believe is reflected in how we live our lives. Our purpose is to reflect Christ in the here and now.
In a world that can be very jaded, we are the light and the happiness. We have the opportunity to show the world the difference Christ makes in us through our love, actions, choices, and speech.
Listen, the world is going to disappoint you. People will frustrate you, try to defeat you, and discourage you to no end. We are not made for this world though, so our source of joy is not found here either. Our home on earth is temporary, and when we view it as such, we are free to hold this world loosely, because we know heaven is in our future.
Instead of allowing complaints, frustration, and negative attitudes to waste our time, we have to focus our minds and hearts on ways to be a light in this world to a generation, to people, who desperately need Jesus.
They say sticks and stones may break bones, but words can never hurt. Reality is, words hurt just as bad as sticks and stones. So choose joy, choose love, choose kindness. Let light shine from your heart when your mouth speaks.
