ELOGOS for Tuesday

​James 3:2-6
For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.
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Our tongues are useful. They can stir people to act. They can express love. They can lift people up. They can testify to what is seen and heard. They can shout out an injustice. And they can be incendiary toys for the pyromaniacs. There are those who flick words like cigarettes into a parched landscape just for the sport of watching the flames lick us to death. Even as a person who values words as a substantial force in our relationships, I know that sometimes the better part of valor is to hold one's tongue not to be simply silent but to shove aside the foolish word until the better word finds its way through the maelstrom. 
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Hey Lord, tell James he had good words. Amen.