The tongue is something that we cannot tame.

James says that it is a “restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Why does he say that? Because we can use it to worship the Lord and then turn right around and destroy people with it. He uses two examples here of why that shouldn’t be the case. Fresh water and salt water cannot come from the same opening, just as a fig tree cannot bear olives. Our mouths shouldn’t be able to spout forth both worship and destruction.

• Do you have a habit of praising God and then gossiping? Or praising God and then tearing someone down? Why?

How can we not allow this to happen to our friendships? We must be diligent to think through everything before we say anything. Even though it would be easy to say whatever we want, that’s not what we are called to in our relationship with God. We are called to a higher standard in which we think before we speak. It takes time to build friendships from scratch, but we can lose friendships very quickly with our words. Trust is another thing that takes time to build but can be quickly lost. Today, pay attention to what you say and how you say it. Maybe you even need to ask forgiveness from friends for things you have said to them or about them. Take five minutes today to say you’re sorry. Forgiveness brings healing.