“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” — Colossians 4:6
Control The Tongue
Recently, a friend of mine was having a difficult time with his daughter’s coach in the sport she was playing. The coach was disparaging and frequently would call out my friend’s daughter in front of her teammates and rarely ever encouraged her or cheered her on.
She never heard anything positive out of the mouth of this coach. It was always correcting, demeaning and sometimes even insulting.
I asked my friend what he was going to do about it and he said he wasn’t going to say anything. Although he was clearly upset, he didn’t want to embarrass his daughter and himself by saying something he’d regret. So he refrained.
That’s tough for all of us, isn’t it? We have so many opinions and often let many things get under our skin to the point of reacting in an unhealthy way.
Sometimes, certain situations just need to be addressed. Maybe that dad would have to pull his daughter from the team. Sometimes we have to act, but we can always tame the tongue.
The Bible is filled with verses on using our words to build up and not tear down. I love what Paul says in Ephesians 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
It’s so difficult but today, look to encourage and edify others, building them up and not tearing them down. Control that tongue when things aren’t going your way.
You’ll be better off for it.
— Jason Romano, Sports Spectrum Podcast host
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@sportsspectrum.com.
