Dear Righteous Toothpaste,

Isaiah 50:4 “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”

When someone shares a need with you and all you want is to respond in wisdom and grace, remember this verse. God will give you the words to say, if you pray and ask him for them. The Holy Spirit will guide our words, so that they can be an encouragement to those that need them.

Proverbs 15:4 “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.”

I am reminded of back when I was in youth group on Wednesday nights. There was one particular evening that I remember very vividly. There were two teens kneeling on the floor, with a mat laid in front of them and two tubes of toothpaste in their hands. They were given 5 seconds to get all the toothpaste out of the tube and onto the mat in front of them. Let me tell you, that room was full of screams of support and cheering for a winner as that toothpaste came flying out of those little holes on the ends. Before you knew it, the timer had ended and the two tubes were empty.

Then the group leader gave a second challenge and set 30 seconds on the timer, but this time the two teens had to get all the toothpaste back into the tubes without cutting them. Meaning they had to work that toothpaste back in through the little holes it had came out of. When that timer started, they used all their effort to get that toothpaste to go back inside, but only ended up with a mess all over their hands and the mat when the alarm sounded as the 30 seconds finished. Disappointed, the two teens started cleaning off their hands as the rest of us went back to our seats which had been quickly forgotten at the beginning of the exercise. Everyone quiet once more, the group leader picked up the practically empty toothpaste tubes and held them up for all to see. He said “These tubes represent each of you, the holes on the ends are your mouths and the paste is the words that leave them. What we say comes out easily, but taking it back is almost impossible. We need to be aware of what we are allowing to come out of our mouths before we say anything we may regret and can’t take back.”

Just as that group leader explained with such a simple but effective picture, we need to make sure that our words are guided by the wisdom and grace of God. We don’t want to accidently be stuck with toothpaste all over our hands that we wish we could put back into the tube. Hurtful words spoken have consequences that sometimes can never be fully erased. They cause emotions, distress, and pain that you may never be able to remedy. That is why God tells us be aware of what we are putting in our minds so that what comes out of our mouths lines up with Christ.

Let’s use our words to be an encouragement rather than a disappointment.

                                                                                Signing off,
                                                                                Tami