“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
It seemed quite
funny to me as a little girl to hear my grandparents talk about what had
happened to our minister in our small town. They felt bad for him but, as a
10-year-old girl, I could only giggle as they described the situation.
Pastor Sanders
was walking down the sidewalk in town and noticed several people looking at him
rather strangely. He started to wonder if his whistling was off-key as he
leisurely strolled past stores. That is until a woman stopped him and asked, “Pastor,
when you whistle, is it usually the tune from a beer commercial?”
Mortified, he
realized that that was exactly what he had been doing! He loved listening to
music as he drove to visit sick or hospitalized people in the congregation.
Evidently, that commercial came on a lot and it had stuck in his mind without his
realizing it.
I had forgotten
that incident until many years later when my husband found himself in a similar
situation. He had a new boss at work and the man had a colorful vocabulary. I
don’t believe there was a single word that we would have spanked our children
for saying that he didn’t say. Often. And loudly. No matter where he was or who
was there.
But since our
kids were not around him, we felt that they would be protected from his speech.
That all changed one evening at supper. The conversation was on t-ball and
batting when our son joked about the games, and we began to laugh. My husband
made a comment that had not one or two but several of the colorful words his
boss often used.
It took him just
a few seconds to realize that all laughing had suddenly ceased, and all eyes
were on him. As he looked up from his meal, three children with mouths wide
open in unison exclaimed “Dad!” in shock!
“What? What’s
the matter?” he asked. Instantly our youngest daughter replied “Dad, you just
said . . .” and repeated his comments verbatim. Now it was his turn to be in
shock. He had no idea that he had unintentionally allowed the vocabulary of his
boss to become part of his vocabulary. It was at that exact moment that
I remembered our minister years before and what had happened to him. And it was
no longer funny.
Proverbs 4:23 is short but full of an important
truth. As Christians, our hearts belong to the Lord, and we must guard them
closely in a world in complete opposition to the Christian walk. There will
always be conversations and actions that do not reflect Jesus. We must be
careful to keep our minds focused on Christ and turn away anything that does
not reflect Him.
My husband
quickly apologized to our children and to me. And from that moment on he made a
conscious effort to replace what his boss said with uplifting and positive words.
Guard your heart, my friend; guard your heart!
R.A.P. it up . . .
Reflect
- Have you
ever made a comment that was totally out of character for you and then
realized what you had just said?
- Where
did that comment come from?
Apply
- If you
work with someone with speech totally opposite to your Christian walk,
pray for that person daily and ask the Lord for an opportunity to speak to
them in love.
- Ask the
Holy Spirit to nudge you every single time you start to say something that
would not be a good example of speaking with the heart of Christ.
Power
- Proverbs
4:23 (NIV) “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of
life.”
- Matthew
15:11 (NIV) “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but
what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’”
- Romans
12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
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