Wisdom for Wednesday - Words

Happy Wednesday!

I'm glad you stopped by for Wisdom for Wednesday!

I'm going straight to the source for our wisdom today. Take a look:

My speech, my words, my tongue, my lips, my BIG mouth.

I hate to admit that I haven’t yet overcome what James calls “…a fire, a world of iniquity…” (James 3:6) and “…an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” (3:8)

But it’s true.

This school year has been particularly difficult for me. I can’t really explain it. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with my kiddos. It has everything to do with the other “stuff” that comes with teaching. There were many changes this year…with the calendar, schedule, conferences, technology support, etc. Not all of these changes have gone smoothly (that may be an understatement), nor were some of these changes what I wanted.

These things (and a few others that I don’t wish to share) have caused me to have a negative attitude and critical spirit, and we all know that it doesn’t take long for those things to start spilling out our mouths. In many ways, I found myself becoming that “Negative Nellie” teacher that I never wanted to be.

I’m so thankful the Lord revealed this to me and gave me the opportunity to get it right before Him. I’ve determined to change my attitude, to be more careful with my words, and to try harder to change the course of conversations that are leading toward a negative spirit.

It has definitely helped that I have found myself in Proverbs during my daily Bible reading. There is plenty of wisdom there in regards to controlling our tongues!

Here's just one of my favorites:

He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Proverbs 17:27-28

P.S. This is an abbreviated version of the blog post titled Spiritual Growing Pains that you can find on my writing website.