I recently had some dental work done and my tongue was numb. I could hardly talk and since it was such a chore to say anything, there were things that I would normally say or talk about that I decided were not important enough to put the effort into trying to talk with a numb tongue!

It made me think about the verse in the Bible, James 1:17 where we are told to keep a tight rein on our tongue. There is an entire chapter in James 3 devoted to taming the tongue saying that “no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” We do not have control of our tongue and we say many things, without thinking first, that are evil and can poison our relationships.

James 3:9 says “with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

It is so true. We praise the Lord and sing praises with the same tongue that on Monday morning criticizes our church family and spreads gossip about our friends. This cannot be! We must learn to keep a tight rein on our tongue. We cannot do this alone. We must have help from the Creator of the tongue!

Just like when my tongue was numb and I had to decide what was important enough to make the effort to say and what was not worth saying, we should be thinking that way all the time. We should have a filter on our tongue that goes straight to our brain that asks that question: “is it important enough to make the effort to say and take the consequences or is it not worth saying?”

If you are convicted of how you use your tongue, I encourage you right now to seek help from the “dentist in heaven” who can numb you up and help you get a tight rein on that floppy muscle inside your cheek bones.

When you have something you want to say but know you shouldn’t say it, don’t just “bite your tongue” – go NUMB IT UP!