Words Can’t Be Returned
And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself. -- James 3:6
Children are like little sponges, absorbing all that happens around them. Sometimes they learn good things. Sometimes they learn things we wish they’re never seen or heard.
Pastor Rob likes to take a moment each Sunday to talk with the children before they head out to Children’s Church. It’s sort of like a mini-sermon with an easy to understand message for all of us. Yesterday he talked about toothpaste and tongues.
He showed the children a small tube of Colgate toothpaste. You know the ones I’m talking about. I think they still call them “travel size.” He had a small plate and he squeezed the toothpaste onto the plate. The children looked at him with wide eyes, unsure why this new pastor was doing something like that. He didn’t even have a toothbrush!
Then he offered a nickel to whichever child could put the toothpaste back into the tube. Nobody could do that. Well, nobody but God. We all chuckled when one child loudly proclaimed, “God could do it!” Yes, He could. How precious is the voice of a child, whose belief is so simple and so strong.
But that wasn’t the point Pastor Rob was getting to. He likened the toothpaste to words -- when we speak ugly words, we can’t take them back. Oh, we can apologize. We can try to make it right. But we can never take those words back.
None of the children wanted to admit they sometimes say hateful things. Sounds like the rest of us. But with a little prompting, they did confess that sometimes they can talk mean to other people such as a brother or sister. One youngster tried to explain that his brother said bad things to him too. But bad words from one person doesn’t justify bad words in return. No matter how much we want to believe they do.
The children said a prayer with Pastor Rob and they rushed out the door with their teachers. I pray they remember the lesson they heard and that they carry it with them all their days. And I pray, too, that we adults remember as well, that the sprout of a fiery tongue causes harm while the warmth of a gentle word brings love and healing.
2 comments:
After Pastor Rob squeezed the toothpaste out at the 11:00 service, one little girl said "You're going to be in big trouble!"
I thought that tied in with his analogy, too.
Sometimes there is just so much truth in what children say.
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