Hello again!
As a reminder for the month of June we are studying the teachings of the New Testament in the Bible. These are things that Jesus’ disciples and followers wrote down after listening to God and He would tell them what to say. Some of these come from letters that they wrote to different people and churches.
So today we’ll be learning about “taming the tongue.”
What does that mean?! We use our tongues and our mouths to talk to people all day long. We can use our tongues to say nice things and encourage other people, or we can use our tongues to tell lies, or to be mean to other people. We have to learn to use our tongues in a way that makes God happy…that’s called “taming your tongue” or teaching it to be used for good.
In Proverbs (18:21) the Bible says that the tongue has the power of life or death. That means that with our words, we can bring hope and happiness to others, or we can make their hearts sad. We can use our words to tell other people about Jesus and that REALLY can bring new life!
In James 3 it reminds us that one tiny part of the boat can steer the whole thing! And one small spark or match can set a whole forest on fire. Just like that, our tongues can control everything we do and can affect a lot of other people too! When we control our tongues we stop before we yell. And we stop before we say something mean about somebody else. When we tame our tongue we ALWAYS thank God and tell others we love them.
James tells us that its impossible to always control our tongues. No one can do it perfectly!? But we should try!!
In the book called Colossians (4:6), Paul said “Let your conversation be full of grace and seasoned with salt.” Seasoned with salt??? Well, when you want to eat tasty food, sometimes your mom or dad can put some salt on it to make it taste good. Proverbs tell us that sweet words are yummy to our souls. When we speak to other people, we should use nice words, and gentleness.
Because, in Matthew (12:34) Jesus said “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” That means whatever is in your heart, is what you will say. If you have a happy heart that loves God, then you will use your tongue for good. If you have an angry heart, or you only think about what’s good for YOU, then your words will be yucky and NOT help other people.
Proverbs 21:23 says that whoever can control what he says, will keep himself out of trouble! And lastly, in the book of Ephesians (4:29), it says to let no yucky talk come out of your mount, but only say things that help other people and that praise God.
There are a LOT of verses about using nice words, aren’t there? That must mean God thinks it’s REALLY important!
What are some things you say that are NOT good?
What are some things you can say that will make other people feel happy?
*You can ask your child “What does mommy..or daddy..etc say that makes you feel happy? What does mommy say that makes you feel sad?” (If the answer is “no” you can remind them that it’s because you love them that you say no sometimes…to keep them safe or healthy. Then maybe share with your kids some of the things they say that make you happy or sad. Pray together to do a better job controlling your tongues.
For our craft, we drew a face and glued on a giant foam tongue.
We also found this music video which is pretty cute from Psalm 34:13
(posted by NewSpringChurch):
That’s all for today. More soon. Love to you all!
He Bids Them Come 