Learning to Tame the Tongue

I have a personal story of how I cried out to God for help, and He saved me from practicing sin in my own life.

I was a gossiper, complainer, liar, and slanderer. I had little control over my mouth, and I hated myself for it. I was asking for help because it made me feel sick and miserable inside, but I couldn’t stop running my mouth. One day, I asked for help because I was doing this at work. When I asked for help, I heard from God to go back and tell my boss that I lied. I didn’t want to do that. That sounded terrible to me. I was in management, so I thought, “How can I possibly do that?”. I thought to myself, “I’ll just do better next time and shut my mouth." Well, the next time came quickly, and I felt terrible again. I would think, “How would I feel if someone did this to me?”. I heard once again, “Go tell your boss you gossiped." I felt just as sick thinking I had to do that, but I knew it would bring me peace. So I did it. My boss didn’t care, but I felt such peace, and it brought me so much JOY! However, I had not mastered my mouth, so not too long after that, it happened again, and I knew I had to fix it. After this time, I started begging God to help my brain think about what I was saying before I said it so I didn’t look like a fool all the time. As I kept practicing this and stayed in prayer for Him to help me stop practicing sin, I learned to pay more attention and check my heart before having conversations. Early on, when I was being trained, I would stop mid-sentence and correct myself until it got to the point where I could stop myself before it ever came out of my mouth. The Holy Spirit was teaching me self-control over my mouth. I praise God for this! To this day, if I say something that is incorrect or may be taken the wrong way, I correct it. Scripture tells us we will be judged on every idle word we say, and I take this very seriously. I pray this example from my life helps you overcome whatever sin practice you may be facing.