Our family got to take lunch to Shenandoah Christian Academy the other day, and along with pizza and chips, we offered them whichever flavor of Hawaiian punch they wanted…or a mixture of all three. As you can imagine, several students chose the mixture, and one of them accurately described the color as “paint water.”
A lot of people would prefer any of those flavors over the mixture and definitely any of those colors over the paint water blend! In my opinion, mixing them makes each flavor worse and it all becomes gross.
I’m glad the kids and teens had fun, but James 3 talks about a mixture that is way more of a big deal. Verses 8-11 say, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” All the water in that fountain would become gross, and all of our speech can be ruined by wrong things we say.
Maybe you’ve got a lot of good things to say, but this verse challenges us to not allow bad things to ruin our good speech.
Maybe you’ve got a good heart. If so, this verse is an encouragement to consistently let that good heart show up in what you say. All day. Every day. It’s definitely a challenge for me to stay consistent when life is anything but consistent sometimes, but the standard is high because the stakes are high. Our words have power, and we need to consistently use them well.
Check out more encouragement on social media:
TikTok YouTube Facebook Instagram