Toothpaste Anyone?

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Over the past 7 days I have been more aware of the amount of words people say; opinions, thoughts, facts and gossip.

With that in mind, I thought it appropriate in our carpool to introduce the ‘ole toothpaste illustration.  As the girls clamored in the car for another uneventful ride to school, I came prepared.  At just the right moment I “unveiled” a paper plate and a small tube of toothpaste.   I asked each girl to squirt some toothpaste on the plate.  After they had emptied the tube, I asked our youngest rider to begin putting the toothpaste back in the tube.

She is such a princess and looked for a way to put it back in.  I stopped her and explained this was only an illustration.  However, the point was the toothpaste could NOT be put back in the tube.  I then asked each girl to point to the paste they had specifically squirted. After passing it around multiple times they could not identify which part they had squirted.

I finally drew the illustration to a close by explaining that the toothpaste represents our careless words.  I explained that once our words leave our mouths they cannot be retrieved nor can they they be identified as to who spoke them.  I explained to them the Bible says that our tongue is like a spark and can burn a forest down, it’s like a rudder on a huge ship and finally it is compared to a small bit in an animal’s mouth.

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It is hard to retrieve what we say. It is even harder to be in control of our words.  The hard and fast rule is “say less.”  We can go back later and add words, or comments, or more information.  If we speak all the words up front there is usually regret of giving too much information or blatantly gossiping. I would rather be accused of too few words than too many.

James 3: 3 – 10

v. 8 – 10 “but no man can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers this should not be so.”