My mom always said: “Slow down, my son. Remember, you have two ears and one mouth.” I was still young and my mom must’ve seen the question marks on my face, and explained what she meant: “You mustn’t talk so fast. Listen twice as long twee before letting your tongue start.”

It took a long time before I could do it. On the contrary! At times, my tongue still wins the race even today.

As the words come flowing towards me from the other side, halfway through the sentence I start making my own conclusions, and true to my nature, I want to jump in and set the other person right. And emotions running high add fuel to the flame.

There is an old saying that I think was coined by Valerius Maximus that goes something like this: “The ears are always open, ready to receive instruction, but the tongue is surrounded by a double row of teeth to keep him in check, within the boundaries of decency.”

This is certainly true. The tongue easily spits fire. It’s small, like a ship’s rudder. Very small, but it can make that big ship change direction very quickly. If we don’t keep our tongue lying quietly between our teeth, the consequences can be very destructive and leave many people in pain.

We can see this happening in our lives. Many times, we want to stop, but then we open our mouths, drop the safety fence of our teeth, let the tongue loos, and the rest is a painful history.

¹⁹Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.

Sometimes, it feels to me as if my tongue has its own mind and start thinking what to say next by itself. Or maybe it gets going without even thinking first. It’s as if our brains are too slow to first consider what the impact of our words will be, let the tongue out of the dog box right then and there.

If we could just tame this thing, if we could just keep it behind the teeth and first get our words in line, there will be fewer wars in the world and many more people with their heads on their bodies.

If walk into our house and the alarm has been activated, we have a few seconds before the noise starts. Maybe it would a good thing if we always first give ourselves a few seconds before we go off.

This may allow us to sow peace and ensure that the surface of the ocean ripples softly like water in a dam.

Scripture
James 1:19

Reflection
Does your tongue sometimes let loose?
And what is the net effect of that?
What can you do to make your tongue wait a bit?

Prayer
Father, this touches on a sore point in my life. I’ve known for a long time that this is something I need to work on, but this trips me up so often. Help! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.