Guarding the mouth

Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. (Psalms 141:3)

A simple phrase.  A simple command.  Yet so hard to do in practice.

Joel Osteen touched on this verse this past weekend, and I've been mulling it over in my head and am going to make a conscious effort this week to speak positive to those that I come into contact with, and to also *try* and have a positive attitude.

How many times have we heard that our moods affect those around us...for better or for worse?

If we are Debbie Downer of Negative Nelly, who wants to be around us?

If we constantly walk around in self-doubt, a cloud over are head, mired in negativity...don't we drag ourselves downs and thus perpetuate our own stereotype?

There's a reason there's the phrase "Birds of a feather, flock together."

Jesus, God, & Holy Spirit only want the best for us.  For you.  For me.  For our friends.  For our family.  However, it just isn't our day to day actions on display for others to interpret.  It is also our words, our attitude, our mindset.

Perhaps God has sent an Angel to us with our answered prayer, but the only reason we are not receiving this answer is that we have put up our own roadblocks from obtaining it.  These roadblocks may in fact be the words we speak.

If I am constantly negative, always down, nothing kind or positive to say....is it any wonder that blessings don't come my way?  Perhaps God has told that Angel..."Oh, he will get his promise fulfilled, but not until her is ready, so hold up upon delivery."

Thus, I must guard my mouth.

I may be angry.  I may be disappointed.  I may be hurt.  But I need to recognize those feelings for what they are, accept hem, deal with them, and treat them as a life and character building lesson.  I may not like the way that my wife portrays me, what she said (truthful or her version of the truth), I may lose friends (who weren't 'real' friends to begin with) but that doesn't mean I need to stoop to that level.

By stooping to that level, I am not helping myself and look bitter.  And if project those feelings to others, imagine what it is doing to me hour by hour, day by day.

My personal challenge this week is to not speak negative about my situation.  Not to lower myself to name calling.  Try my hardest (and it will indeed be hard) not to be bitter or angry.  It s recognizing that this person is sick in a different way than I am.  Where I am codependent, she is in denial.

I must pray for a softening of both of our hearts.  For the ability for me to forgive and move forward, and for her to do the same.  I cannot control her, but I can attempt to control myself.

If I am able to guard my mouth, I cannot feed into the enemies glee of destruction and bring others down.  They will look at me in the end as a positive person, who will not get sucked into the trifleness of petty speak.

The change starts within, and if I can manage to change my attitude, perhaps my blessing will come sooner rather than later....God willing.