Speaking of entertaining angels...

I will be giving staff devotions tomorrow morning. Anyone who knows me knows that public speaking is not my "thang." I usually get worked up, a bit nervous, and my neck will probably be red... UGH.

I prefer a keyboard any day. The thing about blogging is that there is a delete button. There's also a mouse for those wide-sweeping deletes. There is pause, reflection, and judgement on what has been said with a final approval (if it makes it up) or disapproval (if it's never seen again).

Our minds should work like that, when it comes to words spoken to others. A little selection, reflection, judgement, then the final product. It doesn't always work that way, does it? James talks about the abuses of the tongue, and that little member being as sharp as a two-edged sword, and how no man can tame the tongue. Wagging it too much gives it way too much strength!

There are consequences to a sharp tongue unfortunately. Once those words are out there and damage is done, there is a lot to contemplate. And when that sharp tongue says sorry, who can blame the wounded one for steering clear? It takes a lot of balm to heal that kind of wound, let alone the trust that is lost because of it. (Can you imagine Caesar saying to Brutus, "Oh, that's alright friend. I know you didn't mean it! Come here and give me a hug.")

I prefer the keyboard, love the thought put into words in the blogging world, but I know it's not reality. And the bottom line is that we will hurt others by our words, and we will get hurt by them as well. We learn to write by practicing. We learn to communicate and relate to others with our words through interaction and practice as well.

Public speaking.... I don't know if I want that kind of practice! But I'll give it a go....



PS. I'm speaking on the names of Christ. Always a good topic. It's easy to speak when I'm confident in the subject!