Irrational

Living with the reality of feeling unseen can lead to frustrations that are so great it is often hard to control what comes out of our mouth, much less what goes on in our world.   See if your experience tracks with mine. Hopefully you handled things better than I did.

Irrational

Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips Psalms 141:3

            My friend and I changed the words to an old song. Our version was, If Your Irrational and You Know it Just Shut Up. Hopefully you are too spiritual for this, but there are so many times that I know I should quit talking but my mouth just keeps going. The most vivid example is a time when I had tried out for a Christian drama and I got upset with the director. If he had said, “All our angel costumes are size 12 and under.”, it probably would have been fine. What he said was, “You have to be a size 12 or less to be an angel.”  I went bananas. The main parts and the angels were given out and the rest of us were told we would be saints.  I actually said, out loud, “Is that a real part or just a place to stick fat people?” Afterwards we were in the auditorium and a teen behind me was saying how she didn’t care what part she got. She would be a prop manager for Jesus.  That just fed my anger, because I did not feel anywhere close to that holy. The next morning I couldn’t resist one more dig. I went up to the director, held up my 4 month old baby and said, “This is why I am not a size 12 yet.” Then I stalked off. I can remember feeling like I was watching myself, wondering why that crazy person couldn’t pull it together and act like an adult.

            Hopefully, all of you are too spiritual to play that game. In Psalms 141:3, we read, “Set a guard over my mouth, Oh Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Boy, do I need that. I am able to hold my tongue for a long time, but when it gets loose, Katie bar the door.  James 3 talks about the tongue. In verse 8 it says, “No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” I need God to watch over my mouth. If I had been willing to let Him do that that day, I would not have embarrassed myself by ranting. So many times, I get going and I know I should just stop talking before I dig myself any deeper. Unfortunately my mouth just keeps going.

            Fortunately for all of us, God can tame our tongues, even when we can’t. If we can learn the warning signs and know when to ask for help, we can avoid a lot of emotional wreckage in our lives. I need to listen to the spirit, when he tells me to stop talking. I need to listen to my friends who tell me, “Let God take care of it. He can do a better job than you can” Chances are you are like me.

Lord, help us to keep our eyes on you today and our tongues under control.

Feedback: What are the warning signs that you are on the edge of having your tongue run away?

Have you learned how to rein it in?