Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. - Ephesians 4:29
What makes us different from animals is that we can talk. God gave us this wonderful gift for us to communicate with other people. But a lot of times, we take this gift for granted. It is easy for us to say good things when good things happen but when times are rough, it becomes challenging.
I am not sure with you, but I experience being in a situation whereby I was not able to control my tongue during an argument and boom we just hurt each other like being hit by a sword. Yes, sword! Because the words we said can even penetrate our hearts especially when we use it to hurt others. And no matter what we do, we will not be able to take back what we said because the damaged has been done.
In the bible, it teaches us to use our tongue to build others up, to encourage them and not to tear them down. We are called to train ourselves to tame our tongue because we are not born this way. As we talk to people today, we need to give a careful thought to whatever words we say. Will it help them? Or will it hurt them? The scripture above helps me to be reminded that I need to always consider what is helpful to build others up.
And it is true that the tongue is powerful. If we could tame our tongue, it can help restore even a broken relationships.
