"In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise." – Proverbs 10:19
Part of the ways to tame our tongue is filling our lips with words that edify and build up, not put down and destroy. When we speak carelessly, we often spout unnecessary words that at times hurt others and impact them negatively. The best way to deal with this is to control our tongues, and build up our vocabulary with encouraging and life-giving words.
"The wise in heart will be called prudent, and sweetness of the lips increases learning... The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones." (Proverbs 16:21,23-24)
Do you want to fill your vocabulary with good and godly things to say? Here are some ways to do it.
1. Make Sure Your Heart Is Right Before God
Before our words can come out of our mouths, they are in our minds as thoughts. In order to control what goes out of our lips, we must make sure that our heart is in the right condition. Any bitterness, anger, disappointment, and hatred in our hearts make for a poisoned heart and a poisoned vocabulary.
Confessing sin, repenting from it, and turning to God is but a start. Following Him and meditating on His Word and His goodness is what follows next. Remember, what we meditate on fills our hearts, and what fills the heart overflows to our lips. (see Matthew 6:23; Luke 11:34; Luke 6:45)
2. Read The Bible And Meditate On It Daily
There's nothing more effective in filling our lips with godly words than God's Word itself. Reading the Bible daily and meditating on it from dusk till dawn is sure to fill our hearts with God's goodness. And when we're full of God's Word, it's easier for us to speak what God wants us to speak.
Think about Jesus and the faithful men of God in the Bible. It's easy for them to speak God's Word because it is stored in their hearts.
"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11)
3. Consciously Replace Unwholesome Talk With Wholesome Language
We sure live in a fallen world filled with unwholesome talk and crude language. Being God's children, however, means that we will not conform to this world but rather be like Christ in our character.
Although the process of being transformed into Christ-likeness takes a lifetime, carefully divesting ourselves of wrong, filthy and unwholesome language need not last a lifetime –we can do it by choosing to speak life and godly words instead of unrighteous ones whenever we can.
So choose to immerse yourself in godly and healthy inputs, either in the music you listen to, the shows or videos that you watch, and the information that you allow to influence you. Remember that "when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!" (Matthew 6:23)
"Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." (Ephesians 4:29)
