Watch Your Mouth! And your Tweets!

One of the worst memories I have of my childhood, and a very transformative time, was when I had to put a bar of soap in my mouth. For better or worse, that was my punishment for using a dirty word on the bus ride home from elementary school.

What I learned: soap is disgusting and I better choose my words wisely. Even at a very young age, older students thought it was funny to get me to say bad words. I guess I didn’t put up much of a fight before that bar of soap.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we learn bad words? Children are like sponges and pick up everything we say, especially the bad words. How many of you would say the knowledge you have of another language is the curse words?

Words have power. They can destroy or build up. Yet we often times don’t even think about the words we use. We just start talking and saying anything that comes to mind, and as we do so, we leave a lot of damage behind.

You may not see the damage you cause from your words, but it is still there. The saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is a lie. You just can’t see the broken spirit, the crushed soul, or the bruised ego you caused.

James writes all about the dangers in chapter 3. He calls the tongue a fire, set on fire by hell! That’s a powerful statement! He says that it is almost impossible to tame the tongue, to control our speech, but it is not impossible with God.

God instructs us to speak the truth in love. He commands us to:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15 ESV)

Our speech is to cause us, and others, to mature in our knowledge and understanding of Jesus. We can learn to discipline our tongues to be used to encourage people with the truth and love of God.

But wait…

It’s not just about what you say with your mouth, though that is important. We also have to consider the day we live in and how technology has become an extension of our mouth. The instruction God gives us about our speech has to be applied to our use of smartphones, texting, social media.

People long for communication, it is all the rage today. We are constantly looking to connect through technology. Consider these stats:

• The average adult spends 2 hours and 56 minutes on non-voice related apps on their smartphones.
• 2 Trillion posts have been posted on Facebook since its inception.
• Facebook has 1.59 billion users, Twitter has 332 million, and Instagram has over 300 million
• 100 million use Snapchat daily
• 8,796 photos sent per second on Snapchat
• 6 billion videos viewed daily on Snapchat
• 1 billion stories vied daily on Snapchat
• Percentage of parents that know little or nothing about what their kids do on their phones? 47%
• People in USA spend more time on mobile apps then watching TV
• Average smartphone user takes 150 photos per month (that’s 27,600,000,000 photos a month in the USA alone)
• 8 billion videos viewed daily on Facebook

Communication takes on more forms then just the words coming out of our mouth. What kind of videos are you posting? What about your photos? Your Tweets? Or Snaps?

Everything we say or do must follow God’s guidelines for speech in the Bible. How about texting or emailing?

Some people have a false sense of bravery when it comes to communicating with technology over speech. They are willing to email, text or snap something they would never say in person. They can remain anonymous and lack accountability. This causes some really harmful problems, from embarrassment, to shame, to (in the extreme cases) suicide.

Words have power, whether spoken, typed or texted.

Here are some ways we can employ to help us be more responsible with our words:

• Be visible. Removing the anonymity. Don’t pretend to be someone else, be yourself.
• Be accountable. Have someone who will monitor your Facebook, texts etc. Seek counsel from your parents, small group leader and pastors.
• Be real. Don’t try to make yourself something that you are not.
• Always distrust yourself, doubt your motives and doubt your heart. Think through everything you send and ask if it follows the guidelines of Scriptures.

If we are going to speak truth, we need to be students of the truth and of love.

Compare your communication with what James says,

"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:14-18 ESV)

Is your communication full of earthly wisdom or heavenly wisdom? Does your communication cause strife, jealousy and disorder? Or does it promote peace, gentleness, mercy and good fruit?

Let’s learn to be students of the Truth and Love. Let’s learn to be like Jesus. Let’s stop for a moment, think about what we are going to say, type, text or snap, and let’s post according to godly guidelines.

Statistics take from:
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-17-amazing-facebook-stats/
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/smartphone-statistics
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing-twitter-stats/