Initiate meaningful conversation with your family no matter how long the commute with Joe White's age appropriate short talks on scripture, parenting, culture, and community.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
"I have a friend whose name is Snake. His name is Rex Matzenbacher and he loves to collect rattlesnakes. Goodness!"
Family Discussions:
- Why is taming the tongue more difficult than taming a lion?
- How can God help you use the rudder of your personality?
- Why is the tongue like the match of a forest fire?
- How can we keep our tongue on the good side? How can we keep our tongue on the happy side of our home?
Transcription:
00:14 If this was a real snake, I would not be playing with it. I am not a fan. I have a friend whose name is Snake. His name is Rex Matzenbacher and he loves to collect rattlesnakes. Goodness. You know what? Today I want to talk about a snake and this snake shows up in every person's life almost every day. I think we need to kill some snakes today. Listen to this. Out of James Chapter Three James is talking about the power of the human tongue and he compares it to the bit in a horse's mouth and how, even though a bit is small and the horse is huge, the bit can control the horse that he talks about the rudder on a sailboat, even though the rudder is smaller than the sailboat is large, the rudder can control the entire sailboat. He compares the bit in the rudder to the power of the tongue, even though it's small, it can control like a flame to a forest fire.
01:07 Listen to this, it says "the tongue is a fire. The very word of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life. And it is set on fire by hell itself. For every species of bees and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed. It has been tamed by the human race. But no man contain the tongue is a restless, evil, and full of deadly poison." Gossip, cursing, negative comments, sarcasm, cutting people, putting each other down or encouragement, enthusiasm, man. Compliments of praise. Telling your mom how awesome she is. Your dad, how much you appreciate him. Your children. It's like a friend of man says you need to give your kids 10 attaboys 10 I'm proud of yous's for every time you correct them. This friend of mine, you know that I called snake a minute ago, he actually trains rattlesnake.
02:16 You know, he doesn't exactly turn them into play toys, but he subdues them and he really kind of makes pets out of them. If you can imagine that. You know, the most fun part of going to the circus, you know, back when I was a kid was, was the tame lions. You ever seen those? And how they would tame elephants and even bears are tamed. You know, my kids and I used to love to ride horses together and run those big beautiful animals across the pasture and through the woods. You know, at our sports camps, you know, we do surfing, wind surfing and sailing and it's become an incredible sport as you kinda catch that wind and you just skip hastily across the water.
02:58 You know, harnessing the wind, and guiding a horse and, you know, training a wild beast, you know, subduing a rattlesnake. They're all possible with time and patience and a small rudder and a little bit on a horse's bridle. But our tiny tongue continues to hurt each other with poorly chosen words. You know, on the other side of the coin, what a great encouragement it is to get a love letter or a pat on the back or an I'm proud of you or a good job from someone I care about. An encouraging word brings sunshine to a cloudy day. I carry in my wallet a little Bitty Blue Note that my wife stuck in that wallet months ago and she just put two words on that little note. It just says, love you. But from that girl, it's one of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten in my life.
03:54 Here's the questions for the day, man. Why is taming the tongue more difficult than taming a lion? And next, how can God help you use the rudder of your personality? You know your little tiny tongue to guide your words. Proverb says, "Lord, put a guard over my mouth." And then next, why is the tongue like the match of a forest fire? And finally, how can we keep our tongue on the good side? How can we keep our tongue on the happy side of our home? The thought for the day out of this great word from James is this, you know what? Each person can contribute one positive idea and one negative idea of how the tongue could be used for good or for evil. And then we can take all the input and decide how we're going to turn it to good everyday in our family and in our life out in the marketplace and out in the schools.