~ Taming The Tongue ~

My family and I recently watched the movie "The King's Speech." If you're not familiar with the movie, the IMDb website describes "The King's Speech" this way: "Tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stammer and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war."

It was a wonderful movie, as truth usually is much better than fiction. I was struck by the relationship that the King had with his speech therapist. As I've shared before, true friends in this life are a very rare blessing.

But that's not what I want to talk about today.

The part of the King's story that stood out the most to me was his ability to say curse words without any hesitance, but regular words took so much more of his concentration and effort. Human nature is so interesting. As a general rule we can quickly accuse someone of a wrong doing with an entire list of inappropriate words, but it's much harder for us when we've wronged someone else to say these two simple words, "I'm sorry."

The King had a stammer that he struggled with for most of his life. He struggled to say the most basic of words and phrases. But when his speech therapist gave him curse words to say.....they would just roll off of his tongue.

Many years ago, Shannon and I stepped in to be substitute teachers for our Sunday school class. The lesson we were given to do was on "Taming the Tongue" from the book of James.

Shannon and I were both very nervous about taking the lesson on, but we agreed to do it anyway. We put our heads together and prayed.

Here are the verses from James that we were going to cover.

James 3:1-12

Taming the Tongue

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.


The Saturday evening before the class, we went for a walk together to discuss the lesson for Sunday school, and then we had to stop in at Walmart to pick up a few things. In order to speed up the shopping, Shannon went and picked up a few items around the store, and I decided to pick out all of the produce that we needed.

While trying to sort through some bags of grapes to determine what was seedless and what was not, I heard a young man ask over my shoulder, "Are these grapes seedless?" (Now he had quite a stammer, so it took him a bit to get all of those words out.) I patiently let him finish his question, then answered, "Yes, they are. I was having trouble figuring that out myself." Then I smiled at him.

He looked at me and smiled, then proceeded with so much struggle to try and say something else to me. He was trying so hard, but he could not get the words out. He even started growling like a bear. I wasn't sure what to make of all of that noise. (It made me think of Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter" saying to Doolittle, "Stop makin' that noise, Doo! You sound like an old bear growling." But I digress.) I did not want to be rude, but Shannon was motioning for me to come on, as he was done with his part of the shopping, so I asked, "Are you trying to say, 'Thank you?'" To which he replied with a huge sigh of relief, "Yes!"

I told him that it was no problem, and I was happy to help. He then starts trying to say something else to me all the while growling like a bear. I realized that most people would probably be taken aback by all of that growling and never give him the time of day, so I wanted to let him say what he was obviously desperate to say.

He said (with still much struggle) that several years earlier he had been in a motorcycle accident that left him with brain damage. He said he struggles being able to speak. He can curse very easily, but normal words and phrases are much more difficult for him to get out.

He went on to tell me that he had been "caned" since his accident. I said, "Excuse me?" So he explained. He said that one day while shopping, he got so frustrated trying to ask for help, that he started spewing curse words....At about that same time an older woman with a cane walked up and hit him with it. She told him that curse words of that kind were uncalled for, and that he should work on saying nicer things.

He said it taught him a lesson, so now he tries very hard to stop cursing so much, especially when other people are around. Instead of cursing, he growls. I laughed with him as I said, "Well, I totally understand. I don't have a brain injury, and sometimes it is a struggle for me too. Oh, who am I kidding? It's a struggle for me a lot of the time. Maybe I should start growling too.";)

As we wrapped up our conversation, he tried again (with much struggle) to thank me for taking the time to listen to him. Shannon walked over to me as the man walked off and asked, "So, who's the new boyfriend? Ya'll sure did talk a long time." ;)

I told him about the conversation, and like me, he was so tickled at how God works. We had just been on a walk together, wondering what on earth we were going to use as examples of "Taming the Tongue" in class Sunday morning, and there, over the mixed up bags of grapes, God placed that example right in our path.

As I was talking to Shannon about the man and his struggle, it still struck me how even with brain damage, it was easier for him to spew curse words than to say the two simple words, "Thank you." But at that same token, even with brain damage, he still made an incredible effort each day to growl instead of curse when he was frustrated. That really humbled me, because I have NO excuse.

Even though curse words come more easily for me than even I care to admit, other hateful words have not always come as easily (until I turned 40 that is, but I'll talk about that in a different post). I know there have been times in my life that I have LONGED to say something to someone that has hurt me. I have thought to myself, "If only I could say this or that to a particular person, I would feel so much better!!" But the truth is, even if that person deserves every hurtful word that I could think of to say to them...it will never make me feel better to hurt them with my words. In fact, the times that I have been able to say the very "ugly" thing I wanted to say, it only made me feel worse.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie "You've Got Mail" tells exactly what I'm trying to say. The scene is an email exchange between Joe and Kathleen.

Here are their words.

Joe: Do you ever feel you become the worst version of yourself? That a Pandora's Box of all the secret hateful parts --your arrogance, your spite, your condescension -- has sprung open. Someone provokes you, and instead of just smiling and moving on, you zing them. Hello, it's Mr. Nasty. I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Kathleen replies: I know what you mean and I'm completely jealous. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied. My mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to think of what I should have said.

To which Joe responds: Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could pass all my zingers to you and then I would never behave badly and you could behave badly all the time and we'd both be happy? On the other hand, I must warn you that when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows.

Remorse inevitably follows...Let those words sink in.

"By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach." ~Winston Churchill

It's interesting to me how we work on our physical bodies to make our muscles stronger, but the muscle in our body that needs the most attention, we let atrophy....which is something for us all to ponder.

"The tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body; use yours to lift someone up today." ~Terri Ann Armstrong

If you have not seen "The King's Speech," here is the movie trailer to watch. If you watch the movie, keep your own tongue in mind as you watch the King struggle to tame his. If you're like me, you may see yourself in his struggle.



"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it." ~Robert Frost

God Bless,

Soaring Gas Prices Lead To Desperation

(I have had so much going on lately, that I haven't had time to complete a new blog post, however, I've managed to find plenty of time to complain think about how much it costs just to live in today's times. I've especially complained thought about the price of gas.

Last night as I was complaining thinking, I remembered an old post that I did about that very subject. Ironically enough, it is still very true today.

Even though the price of gas is not a funny subject at all, I hope this post will still make you smile.)

I don't know about your family, but the price of gasoline is putting a real strain on my family.

We live about twenty minutes "from town" so to speak, so just driving to the store uses up quite a bit of gas.

We thought about making our own moonshine fuel, but that is an awful lot of trouble. (Not to mention illegal dangerous.)



So instead of risking the law being on our tails being blown to bits, we thought of some different methods of gasoline conservation.

For example, I try to run my errands all at the same time so that I do not have to make unnecessary trips in to town.

We split the driving with other parents when our boys go to various activities at church or to spend the night with friends.

I've even started ordering some things we need over the Internet, because it is cheaper to pay the shipping and handling costs than it is to pay for the gas to drive to the nearest stores.

Shannon bought a car that gets right at thirty-two miles to the gallon to help keep our gas costs down, but we still spend a fortune in gasoline every month.

It's starting to look like Shannon and I are going to have to get our boys to help us get around.

Pretty soon we might have to park the cars and dust off the bicycles and the roller blades.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.


(Of course, I am only kidding. Shannon and I would definitely never make our children pull us into town this way. We don't even have any roller blades yet.)

Bible Study About Joanna

This weekend, I opened up my email, only to discover this wonderful message. It was by a woman that had left a comment on my blog post about Joanna that I had written in July of 2008.

"Hi Amy! Your blog post on Joanna is still inspiring others in 2011! I found it searching about Joanna to teach a girls' Bible study in my home in India. The girls are all from Hindu or Sikh background. Later in the week I teach their moms the same lesson but with different applications.Thank you!"

I was so touched by her kind and encouraging words.
I have been feeling like I'm supposed to share more of these devotional posts on here, and that email was truly confirmation for me. So, I will be doing more in the near future. (Click here to see the Women of the Bible that I've shared so far.)

Until then, I wanted to share the post about Joanna again. I hope that it will encourage you in your own walk of faith.

Thank you to all of you that have encouraged me through this blogging journey; you all mean the world to me.

God Bless,
Amy

~

The woman that I read about in my devotional study book this week is Joanna.

This study is the first time that I have ever heard of Joanna. There is not much said about her in Scripture, but God does not have to use very many words to say so much, amen?

We are introduced to Joanna in the book of Luke.

Luke 8:1-3
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Being the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household, would have made Joanna a woman of high rank in Herod's court.

These verses tell us that Jesus healed Joanna, but we don't know "what" she experienced healing from, but her response to Jesus' healing touch was huge and personal. She gave herself to Jesus and His ministry. She, like the other women, followed Jesus wherever He went, and she supported him and his ministry from her own means.

The devotional that I am reading points out that Herod himself may have known about Joanna's personal story of healing at the hands of Jesus.

As with all of the other women that I have learned about in my devotional, there is always a certain part of each story that sticks out in my mind. This story is no exception.

Before I tell you what struck me the most, let me share the verses from God's Word that tells a little more about Joanna and the other faithful women that were with her.

Luke 24:1-12
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.


What strikes me so much about the story of Joanna is her faith and the faith of the ladies that she was with.
Think about it for a minute.......These ladies are telling the Eleven and some others what the angels had just told them to be true of Jesus and what had happened to His body, but the men did not believe them.

The Eleven did not believe them.

The Eleven who had been with Jesus all throughout His ministry.

The Eleven that knew Him personally.

The Eleven that loved Him.

Are the same Eleven men that thought that these women spoke words of nonsense.

But these ladies, including Joanna, spoke boldly in faith to the Eleven. They knew what they had seen with their own eyes, and they knew what they had heard with their own ears. They knew the peace that they felt in their hearts.

That is what strikes me the most of the story of Joanna; her complete confidence in Jesus.
Being married to the manager of Herod's household, Joanna was a woman very familiar with power. But she knew that the power she had been surrounded by in her wealthy lifestyle in Herod's court was nothing like the power she had found in Jesus.

It did not matter to her if others thought that she was just an hysterical, grieving woman, because she knew what the truth was. She knew Who the Truth was.

God honored her faithfulness by letting her be one of the first witnesses to the Resurrection.

So many times in our own lives and walk with the Lord, others don't believe us when we tell them something wonderful that God has done in our lives. If you go so far as to tell someone that God has promised you a miracle in any given situation, most times you will be looked at as someone speaking "nonsense."

But thankfully, God has given us the testimony of Joanna and her faithful friends for encouragement in our own walks of faith. What those faithful women told the Eleven about Jesus was one hundred percent true. The disbelief of the Eleven did not change a thing; these women knew the truth.

When God speaks a word into our hearts, we need to walk with that same faith. Others may not believe you, but that's okay, because you know what God spoke to your heart.

I have been confronted by someone in my past who tried to argue with me about this very topic. I shared with her a promise that God had made to me, and she told me very matter of fact that I was completely mistaken. She said that God would not promise me that because of decisions that Shannon and I had made in our past. I looked at her and said, "You can think what you want, and that is okay. The thing is, God told me about this promise, not you." She was quite speechless after that. And I will humbly tell you that was the first time in my life that I did not back down, and I did not let the devil use her negative comments to confuse me or make me question what I knew God had told me.

And several months later, God honored my faithfulness of believing His Word over the negative words of another. That same girl called me and apologized, because God had shown her that what He told me was completely possible, and that it lined up with His Word. She said that she realized just because God wasn't speaking to her in that same way, didn't mean that He wasn't speaking to me.

Our relationship with God is a personal one. So no other person can know (without your sharing) what God says to you. That is between you and God.

God speaks to each and every one of us differently.

Only Moses stood in front of the burning bush.

Only Jonah sat in the belly of a whale.

Only Daniel sat in the lion's den.

Only Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in the fire.

God speaks to us uniquely,and works through us all uniquely, because we are all unique. Not one of us are the same, nor will our walks with Him be the same.

So listen for God's Voice in your own life.

Look for His activity all around you.

Open your Bible and read it to see if what you are seeing and hearing lines up with the Word of God.

He will speak to you. You just need to open your heart, listen, and believe!

The devotional book points out how Joanna and the other women went to the tomb grieving, but left the tomb rejoicing.

Scripture tells us that we will experience that same type of joy. It may not come in "our" timing, but our joy will come in God's timing.

And it is a promise.

His timing is perfect.

Psalm 30:5
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

The devotional ends with a beautiful prayer that I will share with you.

"Lord, you laugh at the rulers and powers of this world who oppose you. Help me to realize that no evil, regardless of how terrible or prolonged it might be, can ever stand against you. Give me a greater sense of your resurrection power and majesty."

~ Make A Difference~

Since our family rescued Daisy Dooley (you can click here to read that story if you missed it), we have been made keenly aware of the pet population crisis in this country.

We found Daisy when we saw her picture that a friend of ours had posted on Facebook from Pet Pardons.



Pet Pardons is a Facebook App. It is where "you can post a pet who is on death row (or in a no-kill shelter) to try & save them, or go to a pet's profile & click "Advocate" to share the pet on your wall & hopefully find the help they need. The more Advocates a pet has, the better chance they have of being seen by someone who can save them."

I made a Facebook page for Daisy Dooley (click here to see it) and now along with thousands of others, I work advocating for the animals found on the Pet Pardons site located here on Facebook.

Here's a link to a great article about Pet Pardons. Since Chris Hoar and Ashley Owen Hill launched Pet Pardons on December 24, 2010, over 3,000 pets have been saved through Pet Pardons!!!

People taking the time to ADVOCATE using Pet Pardons LITERALLY saved Daisy's life.



All of the sweet babies in shelters across the country deserve to know what it's like to be wanted and loved. They should know what it feels like to be part of a family.

Advocating is easy to do. It takes only minutes of your time. And it saves lives. Lives of boys and girls just like Daisy's.

There are literally MILLIONS of people on Facebook every single day. If each person only shared one animal, imagine how many pets would be seen & saved every single day.

I now work each day with Daisy Dooley's friends to help save more lives.

That's my mission. I can't do everything. But I can do this thing. Sharing their profiles and pictures from Pet Pardons is giving so many of these animals a chance at life and love.

They deserve that chance.

My family and I now hope for nothing more than to inspire others to want to make a difference in the lives of these boys & girls that are in shelters all across our country.

Please watch and share.

God bless.



"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank