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Since I gave my lesson on Godly Speech, I figured I’d post a brief outline of what my lesson was about. It was mainly based upon the “Ten commandments for the Tongue” using verses primarily out of the book of James. A lot of times, we don’t think about what we say, or even worse, we plan out exactly what we’re going to say so as to best hurt the person we’ll be talking to. The words we say are very powerful. If you were to have a page full of compliments, but had 1 comment that was negative, you’d most likely forget about all the compliments and only focus on the negative comment. So keep reading on to see the “commandments”, each with a little explanation about:

1. Thou shall not blame God when Tempted (James 1:13) - Society teaches us to find someone else to blame, and not really accept responsibility. That’s mainly why you see people suing McDonald’s and saying that McDonald’s caused them to be fat. When things seem to go wrong in our life, we tend to blame God for misfortunes. However, we need to realize that God will never tempt us, so we shouldn’t be blaming God.

2. Thou shall not be quick to talk (James 1:19) - We should be aware of what we say. Olivia came up with a great example, when helping me plan the lesson, using toothpaste. It’s really easy to squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube, but very difficult to try to get the toothpaste back into the tube. We might be quick to say things and not realize what we said, but it’ll be a lot harder trying to reverse anything wrong we might’ve said.

3. Thou shall not give vent to anger (James 1:20) - How many times have we found ourselves angry at someone only to regret saying something while we were angry? When we become angry, we stop listening, and become quick to say whatever we think of to try and hurt that person. We lose self control, and we also lose sight of God as well.

4. Thou shall not make empty promises (James 2:16) - When we promise someone something, we need to hold our end of the promise. Not only does this reflect badly on ourselves, but also reflects badly if we’re trying to witness to others. God keeps his promises with us, so when we become a Christian, we mad a promise to God to try and live a Christ like life. We need to follow through on that promise.

5. Thou shall not be eager to tell others their faults (James 3:1) - When we judge others, we too will also be judged and will be held to higher standards. If we find ourselves judging others, we will often miss the problems that are present in our own lives.

6. Thou shall not lie (James 3:14) - Making excuses is just another form of lying. By trying to blame others, or come up with excuses to avoid responsibility for our own actions, we’re just cheating ourselves and lying to God.

7. Thou shall not speak evil of another (James 4:!1) - In other words, gossip! Gossip is never about anything positive, only something negative or hurtful. Almost everyone has gossiped one time or another. In fact, very profitable magazines are based solely on gossip. Do people come to you for gossip news, or do you know certain people who everyone goes to to get their gossip? While it might be fun to be in on the gossip, just think about how fun it is to have people gossip about you behind your back. Gossip is one thing that can cause the most problems between people.

8. Thou shall not boast about person plans (James 4:13) -

There’s the story about the farmer who declared to his neighbor that he was going to town to buy a cow. The neighbor tried to correct him, “You ought to say, ‘The Lord willing, I’m going to town to buy a cow.’” The farmer replied, “Listen, I have the money, they have the cow, I’m going to town to buy a cow.” On the way he was beaten up by robbers, and all his cash stolen. Wounded and disheveled, he stopped at his neighbor’s on his way home. After listening to the story, the neighbor asked, “Now what are you going to do?” “Lord willing, I’m going home.”

We never know what God has in store for us. What we need to have, is faith that God knows what he’s doing.

9. Thou shall not complain (James 5:9) - The Apostles were being persectued, and imprisoned, yet they never once complained about what they were going through. They chose to endure patiently, rather than complain. If people see us as Christians, constantly complaining, all we end up doing is turn them away from Christianity. Instead of complaining, look to God to try and figure out what God has in store for you. Have faith in God’s plan for you!

10. Thou shall not swear (James 5:12) - This is mainly referring to sayings such as “I swear to God”, but can also be applied to general swearing in our language. I’m sure everyone’s swore before, and even nowadays it’s almost common place to hear swear words. But what does this show others about us as witnesses if we’re swearing? We need to be examples for Christ, not deterrants.

The best suggestion is from James 1:19 “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” Listen first, before you say anything, and avoid being angry. Anger does no one any good. We should use our words to build others up, to encourage, not to tear each other down.