Bite Your Tongue!

I mean, don't make it bleed or anything. But if you're going to avoid joining the bandwagon of people using their words to do wrong, it's going to take some kind of radical action.

Just looked at a new Barna survey in which people were asked about how much they help others and how much they help themselves, so to speak. Among many other stats, I found these interesting:

One-third of adults say they have used profanity in public in the last month (33%). One-quarter claims to have said mean things to others about someone else when that person was not present (28%). One out of every eight Americans (13%) admits to having told someone something they knew was not true, while 10% of adults say they have gotten even for something someone did to hurt or offend them.

As you might guess, those percentages go up as the age of the respondents comes down. Apparently, the percentage of 18-22 year olds who swore in public was closer to 66%. And that only counts the people to told the survey-takers the truth!

It is tough to keep our tongues from swearing, talking behind others' backs, lying, and using words to get even. God knows that. Worse, Jesus said the only reason we spew so much garbage is because we've got so much garbage inside of us: "Out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45) The more we let God clean up our hearts (and avoid putting new garbage in), the less time we'll have to spend biting our tongues.