pardon my french...

wahoo!! first blog since february... procrastination at its best :P
its kinda long so consider yourself warned :)

everywhere you look these days, whether it be music, tv, or just media in general, the amount of words they are allowed to say is ridiculous. even at my school, they blare music in the quad and i guess they wanna be cool so they play all this rap and other popular songs, and because of the way this world is, the popular songs all have to have something bad in them, whether it be just flat out bad words or an nasty implied meaning. so evidently, its perfectly acceptable to blast explicit, inappropriate words across campus but praying is debatable?!?!?!

in today's world, everyday language is heading downhill and its heading downhill fast. walking across campus, you are almost guaranteed to hear someone spout out a bad word and they could care less. not only is it bad words but theres talking behind other's backs and just badmouthing people in general. a few, uh... months ago, (haha, when i first started writing this), i noticed how much the Lord cares about how we the mouths He has given us (still notice it today too).

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." -Ephesians 4:29

that seems pretty self explanatory, yet extremely hard to do. if u think about it, when your sister trips over her own feet and falls on her face, it is almost impossible not to laugh and say something discouraging. even a first grader could have known that that wasn't benefiting those listening...

"But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips" -Colossians 3:8
easy right? ... not. lets go thru some definitions...
malice: desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another--- whens the last time someone punched you in the face and you immediately thought doing something nice for them?
slander: to attack the good name or reputation of, as by uttering or publishing maliciously or falsely anything injurious --- looks like this one could fit in the gossip category... and its also one of the 7 things the Lord hates... (see proverbs 6)
filthy language: go to school tomorrow... you'll hear tons of it

another verse with a more implied meaning... i heard these

"We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited." -2 Corinthians 6:3

if your friends know you are a professing christian, there is nothing they would love to do more than to thrash you if you "let a word slip". "When the paper’s crumpled up it can’t be perfect again" -forgotten, by linkin park
i overheard these lyrics and thought that it describes our influence on our non-christian friends. after just one offense, it becomes a stumbling block to them. they now can get the impression that, "if that guy is doing it, and he is a christian, it must be fine" or something along those lines...

these verses i read a while ago definitely got me thinking twice before i speak...

"...for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." -Matthew 12:34-37

just that first sentence says a lot. if everything that comes out of your mouth is discouraging, selfish and harmful, it says a lot about yourself. the next two sentences back that up....
the most convicting sentence in there (to me) was "men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." there are way too many careless words flowing out of my mouth, mainly toward siblings, and occasionally parents... it is the easiest thing to criticize siblings, especially if they are younger than you... that could start a whole other blog on humility... but most people i know have at least one sibling, and if you don't, you have no idea how much they test your patience, and how easy it is to notice their faults.

Another instance where word choice could be improved is conversations with parents and obeying what they tell you to do. story time:
my family... there's six of us... two or three meals a day... thats a ton of dishes...
so after we finish dinner on sunday, i start my homework... and my dad yells at me to do the dishes... no surprise there... except one problem... we are out of dishwashing soap... so 3 days worth of dishes are sitting in the sink... so i was forced to handwash a ton of dishes... until after a slight argument, we agreed upon leaving one load's worth in the dishwasher. lots of careless words were probably if not said, going through my mind as i was doing those dishes. well im glad to say that its all been worked out and we have soap now so i have no excuse now.


Our words need to reflect Christ's love to us, which should be so evident that nothing but love should be flowing from our lips. unfortunately, we live on earth, so our minds and hearts are being polluted with the sinful ways of this world. we need to fight off the evil ways of the enemy and remain grounded in the Word to keep us from being swayed from the truth. so i hope this post helps you be a little more conscientious of the words God has graciously given you because He will judge you based on how you used them.