Daily Devotional #1868

There was a man who went to his pastor because he was having problems with his wife. He told the pastor that  she is always in a bad mood and at times she just seems to go nuts. “I don’t think I can handle living with her  anymore”. The pastor calmed the man down and said that he had a cure for her that came straight out of the  Bible. He said “When she gets angry, get a glass of water and take a drink, but don’t swallow it. Swish it  around in your mouth until she calms down”. The guy is desperate and so he agrees and calls back to meet with  the pastor a couple of weeks later. He says “Pastor, it was a miracle! Sure enough she got angry and upset and I  just took the drink of water and just swished it around and she calmed down. And she has been getting better  and better every day. What does that water do to calm her down and get rid of her anger?” The pastor said  “The water does nothing. Keeping your mouth shut, that changes everything!” Now in fairness, that story  could have gone either way. We don’t truly understand how powerful our words are, to help, to bless, to  encourage or often to hurt and dishearten others. The Bible reminds us in the book of James that the tongue is a  world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body and that no one can tame the tongue…that it is evil and full of  deadly poison. And First Peter tells us to keep our tongue from speaking evil if you want to enjoy life and have  happy days. But maybe Proverbs 21:23 says it best “Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you  will stay out of trouble”. If people around you seem to be unreasonable and angry and out of sorts…get that  glass of water and keep swishing it around in your mouth. You just might see God use that to change some  people around you. Here’s our Bible verse for today… 
  
Proverbs 21:23 NLT Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.  
Remember I’m praying for you…  
PJ