It is my prayer that all of us will learn to appreciate the incredible power of the tongue. Remember we can't tame it! By God's grace however, we can learn to re-direct it. We can learn to put off bad speech and put on good speech. I came across this story the other day.

         A woman went to her pastor for marital counseling, and after a few preliminaries, the pastor said he had a few questions that would help identify the problems if she would just answer his questions as openly as possible. When the lady agreed, he began by saying, "Do you have any grounds?" To which the lady responded, "Why, yes we do, we have about ten acres just north of town." "No, ma'am, that's not what I mean. What I mean is do you have ... well, do you have a grudge?" "Oh, no, but we do have a nice little carport." "No, ma'am," said the pastor, "that's not what I mean. One more question: Does your husband ever beat you up?" "Beat me up? Oh, no. I get up before he does just about every morning." In complete exasperation the pastor said, "Lady, you're no listening to me. Why are you having trouble with your husband?" "Well," replied the lady, "the man just doesn't know how to communicate."

         Here's one of my prayers for our church this year: that we remember the incredible power of the tongue and purpose in 2008 to learn and to practice The 4 Rules of Communication.

        Pastor John