O Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say...

Normally the book reviews are limited to the sidebar of our blog, but since a portion of this topic is one of our "soapboxes", it merits a more prominent spot. When I was offered a free book entitled, The Tongue: A Creative Force, I was eager to read it. I thought perhaps it would be focused on edifying one another with our words, speaking the truth in love, etc. while speaking against flattery, slander, evil speaking, and such. However, it was quite a shock as the entire book was centered on "name it and claim it" faith through the "proper" use of the tongue. Though there might have been one or two things worth tucking away, the book was overall very disappointing, repetitive, and not worth the time.

What the book did do was cause me to think of something else. O Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say (and the many other verses) has been sung in our house quite a bit lately, and brought back thoughts of growing up.  Our family did not grow up using euphemisms of any kind, but no doubt there are many individuals or families that did not grow up the same way. Many may not even be aware of the meanings or significance of common, but offensive, words or phrases.  Overhearing euphemisms is difficult enough as an adult, but our senses toward them have been heightened a great deal now that we have a little one.  We are doing our best to protect Eliana from the things of the world, which means we have to be aware of conversations going on around us and be ready to provide some instruction should Eliana show signs of "eavesdropping."  The sad part is that we have even had to provide some of this instruction (and even correction) after Eliana has been around fellow Christians (This is just a general statement and not at all accusatory.).   The Bible has a lot to say about our tongues and we found a great little article that sums it up nicely: Corrupt Communication from the Wholesome Words website.  Lest this comes across as a bit "preachy," maybe it can be food for thought.