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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
“Whatever is lovely. . .”
When we see someone looking very nice, we sometimes say, “You look lovely.” When we had a delightful time at an event, we say, “We had a lovely time.” Do we realize that we also can apply that adjective to our thoughts and our manner of speaking?
When we pray for another person, we ask God for His best for him or her. When we harbor bad feelings toward another, we should give them and our feelings over to God and let Him deal with that person and with us.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us what comes out of our mouth is the overflow of our heart. “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak of good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34 (NIV)
We can have good thoughts and acceptable speech if we ask God to give us His eyes and ears to discern what we see and hear. This would allow us to use words acceptable to God. “May the words of my mouth and thoughts of my heart be pleasing in your sight.” (Psalm 19:14-NIV)
The increase of the use of baser language in our society indicates our need for a control on our tongues. But our tongues are controlled by our thought processes, which receive influence from our hearts. Each generation seems to have certain ‘slang’ words that catch on. These eventually become clichés or they make their way into a status where they might find their way into the dictionary. Some topics that fall into the area of inappropriate subject matter reduce those who listen to them to a baser, worldlier level.
We all need to monitor our word choices as we discuss events with our families. Off color words get picked up by small children. They have to hear them in order to use them. Sometimes the children don’t even know what they mean. A friend of mine shared with a group that her son used the word ‘rape’ in a sentence. She asked him what he thought it meant. He told her, ‘Beat up, bruised, and clothes torn.’ One of the other who heard this reminded us that this was what children saw on television—some female carrying the marks of being beaten up, with torn clothes.
When I watch some of my favorite television shows, I notice the use of certain words that typify the type of people with whom they deal. I almost chose not to continue watching one show in particular except I believe the show and those like it focus on the forces that work to clean up the messes made by the wrong doers.
When we desire to draw closer to God, we pray about certain issues in our lives and ask Him to take over in these areas.
Dear God;
Please help us monitor our hearts and minds to show our love for You. We all need to allow ourselves to reflect Your love by loving others. Help us keep a check on our tongues when we face distasteful circumstances. We will give You the praise. In the name of Jesus, we pray. AMEN
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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