A Salty Soliloquy by Onyx Conklin
Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3).
Duct tape.
Yup, duct tape. If you don’t think God as Creator is brilliant, you’ve never been at the mercy of a crazy emergency in the middle of a snow storm and used duct tape to patch, seal, and hold together something you can’t go and get the proper parts for. I’m a single woman who has to resort to playing Ms. Fix-It on a regular basis. I’m telling you, duct tape fixes many things. But one thing I wish it could fix is people’s big mouths—including my own!
My mouth gets me trouble all the time. I’m not really someone to speak ill of other people. I love people dearly. I’m not saying I haven’t fallen in and gotten soaked in “The River of Gossip,” but overall that’s not my main issue. As a baby, we are taught to do two things with our mouths and I’m telling you, POP Blog Fans, those two things have kept me in trouble—eating and speaking. All my life I have been fighting what I put in my mouth and what comes out of it.
There is a meme, a funny picture, I see online every now and again. It says, “Italians always throw up their hands after giving advice and say, ‘But what do I know?’ in case they ruin your life.” I laugh every time. Sometimes we like to offer advice. And sometimes we make that an offer you can’t refuse.
As an Italian woman I can confirm, we believe in big eating and big talking! However, sometimes I need to eat more words and eat less food! I know some of you, no matter which culture you’re from are reading this and nodding your head right along with me. Whip out the duct tape, we’ve got work to do!
Our people mission should be these things:
- Watch what we say to and about others
- Watch what we say to and about ourselves
- Speak gratitude and praise often
Jesus so deeply wants us to guard our hearts because He knows we aren’t effective in guarding our tongues. Oh my stars, now you know why I want to invest in duct tape as a preventative measure. We need to use our words to encourage and build each other up–including ourselves. We need to use our words to thank Jesus and be grateful to Him. And we need to make sure we grit our teeth when the desire to speak bad arises. You see, I am determined that I will leave people better than when I first encountered them. I want my words to be gifts not guns. I want people to feel seen not attacked.
I love Paul’s wisdom in Colossians 4:6. He was obviously appealing to the inner foodie in me. “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
Mama Mia! It’s a tall order, Sir Paul! He knew that too. I believe Paul was talking to himself as much as others. Our words have two aims—if we are using them to criticize or tear down then prideful arrogance is our aim. If we are using words to encourage, love, and help, humble serving is our aim.
So what’s it gonna be—a delightful smile of approval from Jesus or a trip to the hardware store for another roll of heavy-duty duct tape? Choose wisely!
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