Imagine a friend gives you a glass filled with delicious, cold, refreshing spring water when you arrive at their home. You drink it, enjoying the cool, reviving taste. Now imagine the next day you arrive and you see your friend take a glass, dip it in toilet water, and pour that water on some plants. They then fill the same glass with cold spring water and hand it to you to drink. You would respond with horror. How could they offer you water in a glass that has just been dipped in toilet water? It doesn’t matter that the water now in the glass is clean spring water, it’s still horrible. The worst part is that you are the friend in this story. James puts it really bluntly: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” (James 3:9-11). Using our mouths to pray and praise God one moment and then gossip or speak unkindly the next is letting fresh and toilet water come out our mouths. Today, think carefully what you say, let your glass overflow with words that refresh.(Craig B) Open Bible – bit.ly/Jam3v9-11
