Enjoying life through our words

For “He who would love life

And see good days,

Let him refrain his tongue from evil,

And his lips from speaking deceit.

Let him turn away from evil and do good;

Let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

And His ears are open to their prayers;

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” – 1 Peter 3.10-12

Let he that would love life and see good days…

I think we all want that, don’t we? We all want a good life and we all want to see good days. It is true that life may get in the way – but there is something we can do to help love life and see good days. 

We can, first of all, learn how to control our speech. 

I know from my own experience that speech gets us into all kinds of trouble and really mess up ‘loving life and see good days.’ In fact that vast majority of times that I an not enjoying life it is because I have opened my big mouth. I hope I am getting better, but there was a time in my life when I almost prided myself in my caustic tongue and was glad of the fact that I could handle myself well in a battle of the tongues. 

But as I look back I have to say that there was never a time when situations were made better or my life was made happier or I had a really good day because I destroyed somebody with my tongue. 

Refrain your lips from evil and keep your tongue from being deceitful. 

In other words if you want to be happy learn to keep your big mouth shut. Use only words that edify and build up. 

That sounds good. But Peter could not have conceived of the internet. If he had he might have said. Keep your hands from typing evil words that hurt others. Think before you post. Don’t use the anonymity of the internet to post things that are deceitful or dishonest. Your reputation can be ruined on Facebook or Twitter or wherever. 

Last July I had to stop posting on a Christian discussion board. There was so much junk there that I had a hard time controlling my fingers on the keyboard. So I just quit. 

It shouldn't take that. We ought to be able to control our tongues and our fingers so that we honour God with them. 

Then we can love life and see good days because our hearts and words are right.