THINK

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

~James 3:10

I bought a little travel size bottle of lavender body spray to keep in my purse. I love the smell of lavender and every now and then a quick spritz on a wrist, under the ear just refreshes. Every girl wants to smell pretty. Giving me a hug the other day, Michael caught a whiff of the new fragrance and said, "Mom, you smell like an angel!" Now you know that just melted my heart and made me go all squishy inside. Sweet words from my sweet boy is better than chocolate on any day.

Rewind a couple weeks ago...a completely different story. I was sitting on the couch watching TV and my sweet precious boy comes over, pokes me in the thigh, and asks, "Mom, why are your legs so jiggly and fat?" Heart dropped right out of my chest through the floor, laying broken and throbbing beside the treadmill below me. Really? I don't think more crushing words could have come from his mouth. I can handle the "I hate you"'s because I know he doesn't really mean them. But "Why are you so fat?" crumbles me to my very core. Especially because I've worked so hard to lose weight the past couple of years and have made it from a size 14, almost 16, back down to a much happier size 8. Still, yes, cellulite lingers on the thigh region. No matter how many miles I log running, I think I will always have that trouble spot. Most days I can deal with it. But to have that flaw dished out and handed to me from my child...yeah, that hurts.

Blessings and curses come from the same mouth. Smelling like an angel with fat jiggly thighs...Ten year olds don't really know better. But I am just as guilty of the same thing. I struggle greatly with controlling what comes out of my mouth. I want it to be all blessings, laced with grace, building up, not tearing down--but some days it comes so easily to complain, to criticize. Words tumbling out before you can jam the jaw shut. My brothers, this ought not be so...

I read a devotional a while back about this topic of controlling our speech. There was the acronym, THINK, and I wrote it down because it was a great way to remember what should come out of our mouths...if we just remember to think first. Here it is:

Are your words-
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind?

Sometimes remembering this stops me from cursing-and that doesn't simply mean swearing-it is the complaining, criticizing, crippling words that crush hearts, spirits...no matter how unintentionally, the damage is done. Sometimes irreparably. We all know how much mean words can hurt us and I don't want to make anyone feel that way. And there's already so much negativity in this world, complaining only compounds the misery, drawing attention to what's wrong, pulling someone else down into the mire. Why? Why would we want to do that?

THINK before you speak...be a blessing.

Sweet Bugalicious

Beautiful fall foliage