Oh be careful little tongue what you say. Oh be careful little tongue what you say. For the Father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little tongue what you say.

Here it is, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 and here I am touch typing my way into your valuable time and space. I bid you a hearty welcome. When folks ask how I am able to write something every day, I give them some insight into how I do it. The secret for me is to stay at least one blog ahead. That means I write tomorrow's today and then when I come into my office in the morning all I have to do is to edit it one last time and publish it. Well over 90% of bloggers fail to continue after a short run. For many, it is due to the fact that even though they allowed advertising, there was never any appreciable revenue coming in. I can understand that response if a straight profit scenario is what motivated them to get started. Since I don't do advertising on mine and I don't even list other blogs on mine, it pretty much has been mostly an exercise in me being able to share. To share stories. To share life. To share challenges. To share the faith that has allowed me to get to where I am today. And, maybe at times to share something that does bring a smile. The other thing, and many of those who read have noticed, I obviously enjoy putting words on the page. (Often many more words than are necessary but remember, I consider the Apostle Paul to be one of my mentors, therefore, he had some sentences that ran several paragraphs long.) I resist being called a writer but I will not deny that there is some fulfillment in there somewhere. I enjoy reading sentences that do something for me. I enjoy writing a sentence like that. The little write up on my baby sister Kayla had one of those types of sentences in it. I wrote it and when I read it, it did for me what one of those kinds of sentences do. Here it is within the context: "She became a champion. Our champion. A champion of faith, and we literally watched her walk through the valley of the shadow of death into the glistening glow of the fulfillment of her life in Christ." I love the feeling I get when I read the one in bold. Not bragging, just sharing the power of words and how God designed language in a way so that words can evoke an emotional response. I'm actually looking forward to my own appointment with the glistening glow of the fulfillment of my life in Christ.

You have to understand that I came from a background where to be or not to be didn't much resemble a question at all. I can remember getting back a paper I had written and my teacher put red pencil marks all over it. Up in the corner she had written something about how that I showed great promise in my writing. I sure am happy she wrote that note because just looking at all the red stuff could have caused me to throw in the towel. That was a note written by Mrs. Reba Jones nearly fifty years ago. After reading that note the red marks made sense. She wanted me to do better. She wanted to challenge me. She wanted me to know the difference between a well written sentence and one thrown onto the page. A handwritten note to put the entire matter into context. Wow! We are talking about the power of words here. Did her little note have an influence on what you are reading today? I suggest it did and it pretty much illustrates why it is important to consider the words we use. All of us know how we've wished with all of our heart to get some words back that we would like to change, eliminate, or do over. Many times, however,  the damage is done. When the hurtful words make it into print, even on the electronic page, the situation can be even worse because they are there on the record as a testimony that often seems to take on a life of its own. We like to say that we spoke or wrote 'in the heat of battle' but the words themselves speak for themselves. What can we do? Think about it before they are said or written. James, likely the half brother of Jesus of Nazareth, writing in the earliest of the preserved New Testament texts, in the book that bears his name, spent a whole section on the power of the tongue and why we must exercise discipline in taming it. It's a very easy to understand text found in James Chapter 3, Verses 1-18. Easy to understand but enormously difficult to do and that's why we must have God's help to actually do the taming part!

We pretty much live in a culture today where we all are surrounded by coarse words.  I actually first wrote coarse roads but that is a subject for another day. Thank the Lord we also have the delete or erase function on the electronic page. We have spell checker as well. There are also additional software tools for helping to improve the presentation of our text. I don't have any of the advanced stuff, therefore, I use the basic tools to do what I do each day. These tools are neutral in terms of the words chosen by the author. They will support the writing of hateful words or they can present hopeful words. The other day our President's staff caused some controversy when they invited a rapper to perform at the White House who had previously promoted in his songs freedom for some cop killers. He also had recorded songs that directed some pretty hateful speech towards former President George W. Bush. Some supported the invite on the basis of artistic freedom of expression. Others thought it to be a disgraceful situation, where, intended or not, the administration appeared to give their approval to this performer. Words. They can inspire and point folks to God or they can be used as a spigot for all manners of filth and venom. Words matter. Words count. And, that brings me full circle to where I began, talking about word counts and the wordiness of my blogs. Even if they do seem wordy at times, I do hope and pray they will meet the test of being an encouragement to each of us in our daily walk through the life that God has given to us. Until next time, may God bless one and all Amen.           .....More later.