Something's Fishy

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May 27-28

My fishing terms are not proficient at all.  While I can tell a bass from a blue gill and a carp from a catfish, I'm not for certain if all the minuscule fish above are called minnows. Last weekend while working on one of the docks I saw hordes of these tiny finned creatures.  Hiding behind a rock nearby was a good sized blue gill.  I wondered if this was the daddy protecting his young or a predator contemplating his next meal.

We probably go through a similar contemplation when certain people approach us.  Are they coming to breathe life into us with uplifting words or heading for the kill using the tongue as their weapon.

This past week I've been walking through the book of James with She Reads Truth and considered the tool called the tongue.

"With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God's likeness." James 3:9

Ugh. It's true isn't it.  A young woman has come back into my life after twenty years. We were part of her adoption process. She's hurting. The best place I know to point her is to Jesus.  This was my prayer for her this weekend.

Father, how amazing is Your love. No matter where we go, how badly we sin, You are always ready to take us back into your arms.  We thank You for this holiday weekend ahead as we remember so may who were willing to sacrifice their lives for our freedom.  God, that's what You did by sending Jesus to die for our sins.  I ask that You be the controller of our tongues, Lord.  Do not let anything come out of our mouths that isn't uplifting to another.  Keep us from harming others with our words and place a hedge of protection around our own hearts so the unkind words of others may not devastate us.  Thank You for the Bible and the life giving words within it.  The compassionate correction that we often need is also found within these pages.
Father, may this weekend give us reasons to laugh, an opportunity to be with those we love and the discipline to sing praise to Your even on the hardest of days, because no matter what we are facing, You are faithful. In Jesus' Name, Amen






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