But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. Matthew 15:18
Words – we often think little of them. They issue forth from our lips in an endless stream of superfluous babblings. Lightness and triviality are the order of the day. Caught up in the incessant flow of things better left unsaid, we find ourselves defiled by our own mouth.
How careless we are with our words, when Christ has told us “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” Matthew 12:36
If we lived in the awareness of this one verse, we would speak more carefully and probably less frequently. Definitely less frequently.
I have been making an effort to be more aware of the words I speak. I can choose to speak words that bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus or I can choose to speak words that are empty, or even worse, hurtful. Most of the problems occur when I bypass the step of choosing my words and let them come out of my mouth before being evaluated.
The book of Proverbs has much to say about our words. One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 10:19:
He is my Delight 