taming the tongue

I was reading in James 3 this morning about taming our tongues and found the passage so incredibly relevent to my family's current situation that i had to share it.
The first part says "we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man..." very important to acknowledge that none of us are perfect, which i'd like to believe we all know. In God's eyes, the only eyes that matter, none of us is any better than anyone else. Lets just get that right out there in the open - the money you make, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the amount of money you give away or keep for yourself - you are still the same to God. It isn't right to act like you are above anyone else because of any actions or lack of actions.
James next goes on to say how many large things are controlled by something tiny -(e.g. horses by bits and ships by rudders). Our tongues, very tiny and seemingly insignificant parts of our bodies control our relationships, how we are viewed by others, and how God thinks of us. "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the WHOLE person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Pretty big stuff, the fire of hell, where satan himself resides touches a part of our body and is able to affect us in a huge way. That disgusts me, i don't know about you. I don't want a piece of hell touching me ANYWHERE or affecting me in any way! James says our tongues are "a restless evil, full of deadly poison." I think we've all seen the effects of our tongue in a negative way; the hurt in someone that we've used our deadly poison on.
Finally, and in my eyes the most important part: "with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness." Soak that in for a second. I'm pretty sure we have all gone to church sunday and come home and had a fight with a family member- maybe even on the ride home! Or put something up on our facebook walls about how much we love God or praising him for something and in the same minute or day we right a nasty email to someone using curses, other words that hurt, and bringing up the past that should have been forgiven and forgotten. How much does your praise mean to God when in the next breath you are throwing around the "F" word or slandering your brother/sister?
James tells us we need to put our faith into action- it isn't enough to just say praise the Lord once a day or go to church only on Sunday- despite the way you may be able to twist the scriptures to convince yourself of this. The Bible says "you believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder." Sometimes it seems like the demons are more in awe and have more fear for the powerful God we claim to serve. How scary and wrong is that? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." I encourage you to put your faith into action today. Practice forgiveness, practice mercy, practice compassion in your daily lives. Start with your family- sometimes they are harder to practice on than a perfect stranger. You will be blessed if you do this. Don't let your pride get in the way - "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." It's easy to let the past resentments and words that were said years and years ago get in the way of the love God commands us to have for each other. Stop digging in the past and creating walls- start tearing them down, showing the enemy that he has no power over us and our families, but that God has the glory and He is the king of our lives.

I pray that through Jesus Christ my ranting maybe makes a smidge of sense to at least 1 person and that hearts be softened and barriers be torn down, as painful as that may be.
God is Love.