Spreading Fire

"Consider how small a fire can set a forest ablaze.  The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna." - James 3:5-6

Yesterday I was reading a quote by the Venerable Fulton Sheen that said that when we consider ourselves to be really good, then we are actually in grave sin.  But when we see ourselves as severely flawed then we are closer to God in that we see how short we fall of His graces.  I do an examination of conscience every night and I usually start off by thinking I wasn't so bad and then little by little all of these instances of me repeating gossip or not responding to someone in a nice way start popping into my head and I just feel so awful!  I feel like I need a do over!  Does that happen to you?

The majority of us might not be terrible sinners who need to constantly be asking God to forgive very serious sins, but I do bet that the majority of us need to learn how to control our tongue.  Proverbs is 100% right when it says that the tongue has power of life and death.  We can completely destroy or edify someone's life with only a few words.  And unless we are in complete communion with God every minute of the day, most of us are using it to destroy.  Think of how easy it is to insult someone on social media these days, especially celebrities.  Think of how quick we are to criticize them from head to toe as if they weren't also children of God as are you and I?  And what of profane words?  If you look up profanity in the dictionary it says blasphemous or obscene words, yet we throw them around endlessly as part of our vernacular.  Consider the gift of God that is our speech and how you have used it today.  Have you used the mouth God gave you to bless His creation,... or have you used it to tear it down?

Today's Prayer:
Father, forgive me for abusing of the gifts you have given me.  Many can't even speak, but I use my gift of speech to bring others down.  Change my heart and change my mind so that I am speaking life into people instead of promoting more evil in the world.  In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.