I’ve been a bit hard on dogs, but it wasn’t my fault. I always loved my dogs very much and talked to them as if they could understand exactly what I was saying to them.

So, I greet the dogs sitting in the sun outside the office. It seems as if they deign to greet me, though with a wink here and there. We understand each other. When I leave a few minutes later, I say goodbye politely.

I got into my bakkie, and as I reversed, I heard a soft woof. I immediately realised that one of the dogs had followed me. Unfortunately, I didn’t see him, so I had to drive to the barn again to get a shovel. I dug the hole down by the marsh next to the other graves and felt terrible.

How do you get to love an animal that much? But it’s precisely that love that makes filling in the hole so hard.

However, animals did not creep into one’s heart like that from the beginning. In the beginning, they were wild and dangerous. But somewhere along the way, humans managed to domesticate them.

People even got big horses that are strong and powerful under their control, and with a pull on the reigns, the animal makes a U-turn and goes in the direction the rider wants.

Humans are good at taming animals, but for some reason, they struggle with the tongue: ⁷This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. ⁸The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.

The tongue’s default settings pull to the wrong side of the line. The factory settings, as they came from the Garden of Eden, sow destruction and, yes, sometimes also death.

The tongue is the one we struggle to tame. And we have to realise that. It’s actually a flaw in the design. Or rather, it was man’s fault that nowadays we all enter the world with a weapon in our mouth.

When we realise that we have something with settings that we need to change, we must consciously devise plans to do so. Then we have to put those plans into action. Maybe we need to hire guards to do the work on our behalf.

Let’s put our money where our mouths are and start deliberately talking nicely to people. Let’s make it a point to only release positive words and leave the negative ones in the factory.

Scripture
James 3:1-12

Reflection
Is your tongue still on its default settings?
Where does your tongue slip up?
What can you do to stop your tongue from slipping?

Prayer
Father, I know that sometimes I still slip up with my tongue. I try hard to stop but don’t always succeed. Help me to keep my guard awake and not hurt others with my tongue. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.