Big Mouth and Feet to Match

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. --Psalm 141:3

Even without the benefit of a yoga class I've acquired the ability to put my foot in my mouth. Unfortunately, when I do so, I don't look nearly as adorable as a baby who's discovered her own toes. It seems that occasionally I'm plagued by a condition in which my mouth acts independently from my brain and before I even realize what's happening, my foot ends up in my mouth. Although I haven't had much of a problem with this lately, I can think of more than a few examples of times when I found myself apologizing for ill-conceived thoughts that turned into spoken words.

Our heavenly Father knows how difficult it can be to control our mouths. The book of James specifically mentions that the tongue is "a restless evil." The only way we can prevent our thoughts from becomes senseless, hurtful, or embarrassing words, is to ask God to set a guard over our lips. What's more, we need to fill our minds and hearts with the Word of God so that our speech and thoughts are consistently reflecting God.

The ways our mouths get us into trouble are as diverse as we are. When we fail to allow God to keep watch over the doors of our lips, we end up using our mouths to lie, gossip, slander or even take the Lord's name in vain. Each of those things diminishes our credibility as Christians in the eyes of the world. Perhaps a more sobering thought is the realization that using our mouths in that way is sinful. Our mouths are for praising God and encouraging one another. Our lips should form the type of speech that clearly demonstrates the life we have in Christ.

Inevitably, we all say careless things, but that will happen less often if we remember to ask God to set a guard over our mouths. When we make a habit of asking God to watch over our speech and our thoughts, we will learn how to keep our feet where they belong.