We Are What We ...

Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
4A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 (NLT)
4Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 (TMNT)
4Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim.

We are what we eat. This is a very true principle. After all how can one expect to be any healthier than the items he is fueling his body with? If all a person ate was greasy hamburgers, soon he would find himself dealing with the consequences of filling his body with those hamburgers: elevated blood pressure, clogged arteries, weight gain, etc.

This principle is also truth about what comes out of our mouths though. There should be a another saying, “we are what we speak.” What comes out of our mouth is not only a way how people will come to know us, but it is also a manner of being able to tell where we are spiritually in our lives. The mouth speaks from the heart. What is on the inside of our heart comes out through the mouth in the form of our words. The new king james version says that a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. Not only is that person possessing the wholesome tongue able to bless others with his words but is also indicative of the righteousness of his spirit in that it can support and maintain life spiritually. A wholesome tongue speaks life because that is what is on the inside. A person possessing the wholesome tongue often is the person we seek out when we need an aptly spoken word at just the right time.

On the other hand if a person doesn’t have the kind of spirit that is conducive to life on the inside, that too will show through his words. The bible says that those kind of words break the spirit and hurt and maim it. Those are the kind of people that look for the right time to get in the next verbal jab or have a hard time seeing the positive in any kind of situation. Well not everyone is at this extreme think about your daily life and the interactions you have with people. How do you react when you get cut off on the road? Do you offer blessing or cursing with your mouth? What about when your boss gives you a heap of work and an unrealistic deadline? Are you speaking the positive or are you the first to point out the hopelessness of the situation? I would venture to say that we all have some work to do in this area of our spiritual walk. The best way to make sure that life is coming from your mouth is to make sure that you are filling yourself with life through the word of God any way you can get it. That’s important when we think about the fact that we are Christ’s ambassadors wherever we go. People look at our lives not only through the context of our actions but also through the context of what we say. After all we are what we speak.