(The next four weeks will be a short devotional series on "Putting God First" in different areas of life.)
Sometimes I've thought of tape recording what goes on at my house. I think I would be unpleasantly surprised at the results. At the same time, the recording would probably answer lots of questions like "Why does ______ speak so disrespectfully to his brothers?" and "Where did they learn to talk like that?"
The tape would probably reveal a lot about my wordsa lot that I might as soon not want to know. My husband imitated my voice tone a while back, and it almost made me cry.
Psalm 19:14 is a good summary of what it means to put God first in our words. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD." If God were standing in the room with me (hmm, that's an interesting thought) would He be pleased with what I say to my kids, or my husband, or my boss, or my sister?
Would my words reflect God's love for them, or my trust in God-- that he works everything out.
Next time I open my mouth, I think I might listen to the tape before I ever record it.
(Note: This is the beginning of a devotional series. And...it's a re-run. I'm on vacation watching my niece play softball, visiting grandparents in the nursing home, and staying up way too late with my mom everynight for fear we'll miss 2 minutes of time. I'm sure you understand.)